The Times-Picayune 02-19-2025 by The Advocate

Carnival security plans take shape

BY JOHN SIMERMAN and JAMES FINN Staff writers

DESIREE STENNETT

Assaults

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

Louisiana’s state-run youth detention centers have reported signiﬁcant decreases in assaults, something ofﬁcials attribute to a new detention facility for particu-

larly at-risk youth and enhanced therapeutic approaches in the juvenile prison system. In the juvenile justice system, a therapeutic model focuses on rehabilitation over punishment. Overall, between 2023 and 2024, the system saw a 41% decrease in

youth-on-staff assaults and threats of assault, from 249 to 145, ofﬁcials reported during a January meeting of the Senate Women and Children’s Committee. Meanwhile, there was a 20% decrease in youth-on-youth assaults and threats thereof, from 1,046 to

831. The news comes after a difﬁcult couple of years in which escapes and prison brawls frequently made headlines. The statistics, which do not reﬂect youth assaults that take place in local jails, are based on code of

Doctors push back against vaccine rollback

BY EMILY WOODRUFF

Staff writer

Days after Louisiana’s top health ofﬁcial ordered to an end to mass vaccination efforts and promotions in the state, Louisiana doctors, New Orleans health ofﬁcials and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, are defending immunizations as a necessary medical intervention and say the decision comes with serious risks.

A group of nine medical organizations representing thousands of Louisiana doctors said in a statement Monday that vaccines “should not be politicized.” The head of the New Orleans Health Department, meanwhile, said the city would continue its own vaccine promotion and distribution efforts, despite the state’s decision to withdraw its support.

“We are looking to alternative ways to ﬁnd resources so that we can fill the gap left by the state not supporting mass vaccination events as they have in the past,” said Dr Jennifer Avegno.

And Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, said the policy “ignores the reality of people’s lives.”

The comments come after Dr Ralph Abraham, Louisiana’s surgeon general, warned state employees in a memo to refrain from recommending that people

Policy shift draws criticism from Cassidy, health officials ä See VACCINE, page 5A

conduct data, Deron Patin, deputy assistant secretary of the Ofﬁce of Juvenile Justice, told legislators. When youth violate the system’s code of conduct, the state keeps a record of it, he added. The data

See ASSAULTS, page 4A

Mexican border arrests drop 39% in January

WASHINGTON Arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico plummeted 39% in January from a month earlier authorities said Tuesday, an early gauge of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The Border Patrol made 21,593 arrests during the month, down from 47,316 in December and the lowest mark since May 2020 near the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Call it the Trump Effect,” the White House said in a statement Border arrests fell sharply well before Trump took ofﬁce from an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023. Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders and then-President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in June.

Arrests sank even further after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20 and issued a slew of orders on immigration, including one to suspend asylum on grounds that the United States is under “invasion” at the southern border Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that there were 229 border arrests in a 24-hour period, the lowest he remembered since becoming a Border Patrol agent in 1984. Homeland Security Department ofﬁcials say they want to drive that to zero.

Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said Friday in Edinburg, Texas, that he will “not be satisﬁed that our border is secure until we have operational control of our border, which means anyone that crosses illegally is apprehended or no one crosses.”

Homeland Security said Tuesday that it launched a multimillion-dollar video ad campaign in the U.S. and internationally that features Secretary Kristi Noem warning people to leave or not to come. “If you are here illegally, we will ﬁnd you and deport you. You will never return,” she said in the video.

Kids found ‘abandoned’ for years in Mich. home

DETROIT Donations of clothes and money are pouring in for three children who were “basically abandoned” by their mother for years, living alone in a suburban Detroit home among trash and feces, a sheriff said Tuesday

“You wouldn’t do this to an animal let alone your child,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said.

Bouchard said the mother would occasionally leave food on the porch at the Pontiac home but lived elsewhere and had little contact with the children, a 15-year-old boy and two girls, ages 13 and 12. She’s now in jail while prosecutors consider ﬁling charges.

Police found the children Friday after a landlord said the mother was behind in paying rent and wondered if there was a problem at the house. The scene was so extreme that investigators wore hazmat suits.

“Trash was piled in some places three and four foot high. Everything was covered with feces and trash,” Bouchard said. “The toilet had become nonfunctional That’s the kind of situation these poor kids had been living in for years, not just hours or days — for years.” The boy indicated that he had left the house only two times, “once because he wanted to feel the grass, which by itself is heartbreaking,” the sheriff said.

Bouchard said they were “basically abandoned” and afraid to leave He said the children might have been living alone for more than four years. Bouchard said the mother and a delivery businesses would drop off food, though drivers apparently were not aware there were children inside.

Rebels advance on third city in Congo

BY WILSON MCMAKIN Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal Rwanda-backed rebels appeared to be heading toward a third major city in eastern Congo, residents said Tuesday, as international pressure rose over the M23’s expansion in a mineral-rich region that’s critical for global technology

The M23 rebels on Tuesday attacked all the main Congolese army positions on the road to Butembo, a city of 150,000 people, and the situation was rapidly deteriorating, said Auguste Kombi, a civil society leader in Kitsombiro, a town along the road.

“We’re afraid that the enemy will advance to Butembo,” Kombi said.

Butembo is about 130 miles north of Goma, the city of over 2 million people that the M23 rebels seized last month as about 3,000 people were killed.

The advance on Butembo means the rebels are spanning out both north and south of Goma. The rebels this week seized another provincial capital to Goma’s south, Bukavu, near Burundi. The region is rich in gold and coltan, a key mineral for the production of capacitors used in most consumer electronics such as laptops and smartphones.

Also Tuesday, the M23 captured the town of Kamanyola, about 15 miles south of Bukavu, after they overcame resistance from the Congolese army in the evening, said Steve Mubalama, a civil society representative in the town

Mubalama expressed fears that the M23 rebels would advance a further 45 miles to the south to take the strategic city of Uvira. The M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vy-

ing for control of eastern Congo’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away

“We’re worried because we’re in danger of experiencing a situation similar to that in Goma, with the loss of human lives,” said Kambale Nyuliro, a Kitsombiro civil servant He told the AP that Lubero town, on the way to Butembo, was surrounded on three sides by M23 ﬁghters but still under Congolese army control.

“Since the ﬁghting began, the enemy has only advanced,” he said.

Analysts have said the rebels are eyeing political power, unlike their brief capture of Goma, a major security and humanitarian hub, in 2012.

The rebel-appointed mayor of Goma said Tuesday they would carry out a census, in a sign of their intention to maintain control of the city. And ferry service resumed between Goma and Bukavu, the only way to travel between them for now Rwanda has accused Congo of enlisting ethnic Hutu ﬁghters responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. M23 says it’s ﬁghting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed state to a modern one. Analysts have called those pretexts for Rwanda’s involvement

On Tuesday, the U.K. Foreign Office summoned the Rwandan ambassador in London and in a statement condemned the rebel gains, calling them “an unacceptable violation of (Congo’s) sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Sudanese paramilitary attacks leave hundreds of civilians dead

BY FATMA KHALED Associated Press

CAIRO — Attacks by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Force have killed hundreds of civilians, including infants, in White Nile state, Sudanese officials and rights groups said Tuesday.

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the paramilitary group targeted civilians in the past few days in villages in the al-Gitaina area after they were “overwhelmed by its devastating defeat” by the Sudanese army. The statement put the death toll at 433, while the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors’ Trade Union put that ﬁgure at 300.

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians said in a statement Tuesday morning that more than 200 people, including women and children, were killed in RSF attacks and hundreds of others were injured over the past three days.

“The attacks included executions, kidnapping, forced disappearance, looting, and shooting those trying to escape,” the group said.

Minister of Culture and Information Khalid Ali Aleisir said on Facebook that recent attacks by the RSF in Al-Kadaris and Al-

Khalwat villages in White Nile state are the latest “systematic violence against defenseless civilians.”

The Sudanese military said Saturday it had advanced in White Nile and “liberated more cities and villages,” cutting crucial supply routes to the RSF, a rival group it has battled for control of the country since April 2023.

The war in Sudan has killed more than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people — about 30% of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations.

An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries.

The U.N. on Tuesday said that throughout 2024, its human rights ofﬁce documented more than 4,200 civilian killings, adding that the total number is likely much higher

The U.N Ofﬁce for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs appealed on Monday for $6 billion for its 2025 humanitarian response in Sudan, to help about 21 million people in the country and the millions who fled the war abroad.

“This is a humanitarian crisis that is truly unprecedented in its scale and gravity,” said UN aid chief Tom Fletcher in a statement, “and it demands a

Arctic air sweeping over Plains shatters record temperatures

BY JACK DURA Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D — More than 95 million people are facing gripping cold Tuesday as a polar vortex sends temperatures plunging to record levels, closing schools, bursting pipes and forcing communities to set up more temporary shelters for the homeless.

“Some of the coldest temperatures of the entire winter season right now across the central United States,” said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The harsh cold descended on the nation’s midsection Monday on the heels of weekend storms that pummeled the Eastern U.S. killing at least 17 people. Some areas in the Midwest have wind chills as cold as -50 to -60 degrees, Orrison said. It is so dangerous that hundreds of public school districts canceled classes or switched to online learning Tuesday in Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Kansas and Missouri. And in Kansas City, Kansas, dozens of tents were set up in one building to house the homeless.

The biggest batch of record-setting cold temperatures are likely to hit early Thursday and Friday, Orrison said. But North Dakota already felt more like

the North Pole on Tuesday as Bismarck hit minus 39, breaking the record of minus 37 set in 1910 for the same date.

Stephanie Hatzenbuhler’s family has been contending with the cold in many ways on their farm and ranch west of Mandan, North Dakota, from their calving operation, to vehicles and equipment starting, to their coal-ﬁred furnace keeping up.

“There’s always something new to learn and something new to experience. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done this, so you have to adapt,” said Hatzenbuhler, who called the cold spell “the Siberian experience.” Conditions were rapidly deteriorating across northeast, east and central Oklahoma as residents in these parts of the state were dealing with freezing rain, ice and snow, according to the National Weather Service.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said U.S. Highway 75 between Tulsa and Okmulgee was shut down in both directions because of the amount of vehicles and semi-tractor trailers that were stuck on the road due to ice.

“Our troopers are working to get salt and sand trucks to the area to treat the roads but it is extremely slick in that area,” the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said in post on X.

response unprecedented in scale and intent.”

Meanwhile, Norway’s Minister of International Development Åsmund Aukrust denounced the escalation in violence and attacks against civilians.

“I am deeply concerned about the sharp increase in civilian deaths caused by the intensified conflict in Sudan. I am also shocked by reports of indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Any such attacks must stop immediately,” Aukrust said in a statement published on the web portal for the Norwegian Government

The developments on the ground have given the military the upper hand in the war as the paramilitary suffered multiple blows, including losing control of the city of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira province, and other areas in the province. The Sudanese military also regained control of the country’s largest oil reﬁnery

The RSF appears to have lost control of the Greater Khartoum area and the cities of Omdurman and Khartoum Bahri.

The war has shown no end in sight despite international mediation attempts, including a U.S. assessment that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide.

News Tips /Stories: NEWSTIPS@THEADVOCATE.COM

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JANVIER BARHAHIGA

People board the first boat leaving Bukavu heading to Goma on Lake Kivu since the eastern Congo city was taken by M23 rebels Tuesday.

THE CANADIAN PRESS PHOTO By CHRISTINNE MUSCHI People shovel snow to dig out their cars in Montreal on Monday after over 27 inches of snow fell in four days, breaking a snowfall record in the city

Group urges action on stalled coastal project

BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer

Filings ask court to intervene A wide dirt path marks the location of the MidBarataria Sediment Diversion

A group of Plaquemines Parish business and property owners are asking a state court to take action on the stalled $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project, arguing failing to move forward on the controversial coastal restoration plan threatens their economic interests and livelihoods.

The group of eight filed a request to intervene on Monday in an existing lawsuit between Plaquemines Parish and the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority That lawsuit is currently paused at the request of the two sides as they negotiate a way forward for the unprecedented project, which the parish opposes largely due to the damage it would cause to commercial oystering and shrimping in the area.

The group also separately filed a motion on Tuesday asking the same court, the 25th Judicial District Court in Plaquemines, to lift the stay that has paused the lawsuit. They argue in part in the request to intervene that the state’s power to address coastal land loss for all of Louisiana overrides the parish’s stop-work order and Plaquemines’ claim that a local construction permit is needed.

The ﬁlings are the latest chapter in the saga playing out over the diversion project, which was long seen as a linchpin of the state’s coastal master plan. Though it broke ground in 2023, the project was thrown into doubt by Gov Jeff Landry after he took office last year, saying he opposed it in its current form because of its effects on commercial ﬁshing and communities in Plaquemines as well as its

escalating costs.

Plaquemines has sued to stop the project, arguing the state did not obtain local building permits for it. The state had previously argued it was exempt from such permits under Louisiana law, but has since changed course under Landry The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted a permit for the work after a lengthy environmental review

“We’re intervening to get the project back on and moving because we believe it will benefit everybody in Plaquemines Parish and the state,” said Maura Pelleteri of the Pugh Accardo law ﬁrm, representing the group seeking to intervene.

The interveners are: Richard Blink, Foster Creppel, Kevin Crossen, Alicia Dardar, Timothy Dardar, Ryan Lambert, Michael Mariana and Harold Hunter “Terry” White III. Plaquemines Parish officials, their lawyer and the CPRA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The project is being paid for with fines and settlement dollars linked to the 2010 BP oil spill though cost overruns due to delays caused by the state could fall on Louisiana. Nearly

$380 million has been set aside to help those negatively affected, including commercial ﬁshers.

Long sought by coastal advocates and a range of scientists, the project aims to mimic the processes that built south Louisiana in the first place, by funneling river water and sediment into disappearing wetlands to rebuild them.

It would be built near Ironton on the west bank of Plaquemines and is projected to build 21 square miles of land over 50 years, while nourishing other marshbuilding projects with sediment.

The project could remain effective beyond that timeframe, ofﬁcials involved in its design say Coastal advocacy groups have pushed for the project to move forward, saying Louisiana has little time to lose as its land loss crisis worsens.

Plaquemines Parish is among the worst hit.

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which has worked on land loss issues for decades, said that while it is not part of the legal action, it wants to see the Mid-Barataria project proceed as planned.

“We continue to support the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion and recognize the importance of healthy wetlands to our coastal com-

munities and industries and our state’s economy,” said the group’s communications director James Karst.

“We believe in the future

of south Louisiana, and we want to see this project built as permitted — as soon as possible.”

Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of local and national organizations, said “this intervention is a heartening demonstration of parish residents’ support. Without urgent action, the future of our Barataria Basin is bleak.”

“While construction on MBSD has been stalled for about a year, we have lost another 500 acres in vital coastal wetlands,” it said in a statement.

Email Mike Smith at msmith@theadvocate.com or follow him on Twitter @MikeJSmith504. His work is supported with a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, administered by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

One of Metairie’s most anticipated events, Family Gras,isback this weekend, and LCMC Health is proud to be asponsor!Thisfamily-friendly celebration features amazing musicalperformances, avibrant artmarket,delicious localfood,and activitiesfor the whole family to enjoy. Stop by ourLCMC Health tent forfreeswag, privatebreastfeeding spaces fornursing moms,and more!

Friday,February 21,3pm Saturday,February 22, 9am Sunday,February 23,10am

an aisle of her family’s store Tuesday afternoon. “The people here are great. They have all helped us That’s what we needed though. We need the closeness right now, since the person who was one of the most important in our lives is gone.”

Thanh Vu was shot just after 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 and died days later New Orleans police arrested three suspects: Nathanial Carpenter, 24; Anjanau “Henny” Davis, 25; and Adrian Harris, 27. Carpenter confessed to the killing, according to documents the New Orleans Police Department ﬁled in Criminal District Court. He told police that the robbery went awry and that he accidentally shot Vu when she grabbed his gun.

“The

He and Davis, who police say went inside the store together, are facing seconddegree murder charges. Harris, who is accused of driving the getaway car, was arrested on one count of principal to second-degree murder in the crime.

Reopening the store last month ahead of the Vietnamese New Year festivities was a tough decision, said Mai Vu, another of Thanh Vu’s six children. But it was important to them to maintain the sense of community that her mother spent decades fostering.

“The community needed us to come back,” she said. “A lot of people depend on us for their essentials. Not only regular people, but businesses come to us to purchase their essentials.

ASSAULTS

Continued from page 1A

does not distinguish between actual assaults and threats of assault.

Officials said that opening a long-anticipated new facility, the Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe, in May was a driving force behind the change. It has far better security than the older campus there, according to the OJJ.

The facility has 72 beds and individual rooms for youths, and officials have long said that opening it would lower violence in the prison system by holding teens who were at the highest risk of committing assault.

There is a second location of the Swanson Center in Columbia, which also houses youth in secure care.

“I’m kind of astounded by the change in the numbers,” state Sen. Beth Mizell RFranklinton, told OJJ officials during last month’s meeting.

Mizell asked Patin if the change only had to do with having individual rooms for youth.

Patin said a transition to

Without us being open, they would have to go elsewhere.”

Mary Nguyen, a longtime Viet My customer who has known Thanh Vu since they were schoolchildren in Vietnam decades ago, has been back to shop several times since the store reopened

She said it’s been “healing” for the community to see the store operational. But the family’s grief is undeniable. “The store feels OK, but the family members are still full of sorrow,” she said.

“There’s still sadness. I told her husband to try to continue to work Don’t stay back. I know you miss her so much, but you keep going. If not, it will make you sick.”

Mai Vu also said she aches for her father, who is managing the store with her sister’s help six weeks after her mother’s death

“He’s sad,” she said. “They spent every day together going to work together driving to work, being at work. For him, going to the store without my mom is deﬁnitely different. Most days, it makes him sad to be at the business.”

Before the deadly robbery

Nhu Vu said she had talked to her mom about coming home to run the store so that her mom could take a few months off for vacation

She was supposed to work alongside her mother, learning to run the register, price goods and purchase inventory She said she did not plan to learn to butcher meat

“That’s the one thing I will not do,” Nhu Vu said in a moment of levity

But she never got the chance. Instead, she’s figuring it all out on the spot Often when she’s not sure

a therapeutic model has played a role.

The state has been touting a therapeutic model for years, yet it often has struggled to pay for the staff and other resources needed to implement that model.

Still, Patin said, the agency has made strides toward improving it, especially in the past several years. The system now evaluates youths’ needs and risk factors, and it also requires additional training for staff, he said

The OJJ also trains staff to use a therapeutic trustbuilding model with youth, and it has hired a director of education, Patin added.

Since then, “we have seen the school performance across the state blossom,” according to Patin

But some legislators were skeptical that, in the long term, the state will be able to hold to its promises of a therapeutic model.

“Louisiana has adopted a model that it has not funded. In doing so it has overexposed our children to the risk of harm, and also our staff,” said state Sen Katrina Jackson-Andrews, DMonroe. “If we’re not going to fund it, we need to find another model.”

Over the years she has

how to price an item or make some other business decision, she finds herself asking, “Would my mom do it this way?”

So far the business is still humming. As prices need updating or products need to move, Nhu Vu makes new handwritten signs for customers. She keeps her mom’s old handwritten ones for herself.

Now, the Vu family is just waiting for justice. Nhu Vu said she’s grateful that police were able to find the suspects accused of killing her mother

“I believe that life in prison is what they deserve, because they took away a life,” she said.

Email Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@ theadvocate.com.

found that circumstances in youth detention facilities to be “transient,” she said.

Kenny Loftin, who heads OJJ, has supported the therapeutic model, though he has acknowledged the agency faces challenges, especially when it comes to stafﬁng.

“Child psychologists and psychiatrists, which we desperately need, are very expensive,” he told the committee, adding that the department plans to request money for social workers.

Meanwhile, the state has taken a harsher approach toward juvenile justice under Gov Jeff Landry Last year, it passed bills to send 17-year-olds to the adult system and implement tougher sentences for juveniles.

Legislators also placed a constitutional amendment on the March ballot that would allow them to more easily add to the list of crimes for which younger teens could go to adult prisons.

That amendment, Amendment 3, will be on the ballot during Louisiana’s March 29 election.

Email Meghan Friedmann at meghan.friedmann@ theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

aisle at the Viet My store in New Orleans

a miles-long rolling party that lasts for days remains an open question. Sources said authorities were still hashing out details, but that the heavy police presence and wide perimeter last Saturday night for Krewe du Vieux offered a taste.

Shane Guidry, Gov Jeff Landry’s point person for New Orleans issues, said residents should expect a show of force from state law enforcement akin to what was in place for the Super Bowl, when officials said more than 2,000 local, state and federal law enforcement and military personnel swarmed the event.

“It’ll be a huge presence again,” Guidry said, including “hundreds” of Louisiana National Guard military police, state probation and parole ofﬁcers and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents.

An emergency order Landry issued in the wake

VACCINE

Continued from page 1A

“receive any and all vaccines” and instead to provide data about the reduced health risks that result from being vaccinated.

The memo emphasized personal choice and said “conversations about specific vaccines, and whether or not a vaccine is right for a speciﬁc person, are best had with the individual’s health care providers.” Louisiana Department of Health ofﬁcials did not respond to requests for comment.

The directive underscores a widening rift between politics and medical expertise, both in Louisiana and nationwide. The announcement came the same day vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was conﬁrmed to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, amplifying concerns about the future of public health policy

The state Health Department is powered by federal funds, with the U.S. government providing around 70% of its $19.8 billion budget. State health ofﬁcials did not respond to questions about how much of the department’s funding goes to vaccination programs.

Last year the federal government budgeted $682 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Immunization Program, which is also known as Section 317. This program supports state and local vaccine clinics, education and epidemic prevention. The CDC did not answer questions about how much of that funding goes to Louisiana.

Louisiana has a history of providing free vaccinations statewide. During the pandemic, the state set up mass vaccination clinics that reached thousands. In 2019, before the COVID-19 crisis, the state provided around

of the Bourbon Street attack unlocked additional state security resources through Mardi Gras. The federal government also granted Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s request to designate Mardi Gras a level one Special Event Assessment Rating. The “SEAR 1” label means more federal resources to the city, too.

A senior ofﬁcial from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told reporters in January that a team of ﬁre and explosives investigators, engineers and bomb-sniffing dogs will remain in New Orleans through Mardi Gras in response to the Jan. 1 attack

Representatives of Cantrell’s office and the New Orleans Police Department did not answer questions this week about how the New Year’s attack has contributed to local law enforcement’s Mardi Gras planning. In January, an NOPD spokesperson said the agency will be “increasing our security presence in partnership with other law

3,500 ﬂu shots to residents.

Abraham’s memo, released Thursday, suggested those sorts of clinics won’t be held again. State health officials also did not respond to requests for more information.

The about-face sparked ﬁerce backlash from Louisiana’s medical community this week. Cassidy said in a statement that he ran large-scale immunization programs as a physician to help busy parents get their children vaccinated.

Advertising the benefits of vaccines and connecting parents to them improves the health of children.

“Removing these resources for parents is not a stand for parents’ rights,” Cassidy said. “It prevents making health care more convenient and available for people who are very busy.”

Cassidy voted to conﬁrm Kennedy, a vaccine critic, last week, after he said he extracted promises from the Trump administration that officials would not change vaccine policy without approval from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which Cassidy leads.

In an open letter to Louisiana patients Monday, nine medical associations called vaccines “one of the most signiﬁcant medical innovations of our time,” an “invaluable thread in the fabric of our society.”

The letter was signed by the Louisiana State Medical Society; the Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians; the Louisiana chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Physicians and the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists; the Louisiana Society of Addiction Medicine; MedicineLouisiana; and the Radiological Society of Louisiana.

The Louisiana State Medical Society alone represents

enforcement agencies” but declined to provide specifics, citing “the integrity of our security efforts.”

Some aspects of Mardi Gras security will look familiar

Last week, the New Orleans City Council greenlit $3.6 million to fund 225 deputies from outside police agencies — plus 40 agents from the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections to bolster trafﬁc enforcement throughout the French Quarter

The deal provides an extra $1 million for a program that began during the pandemic, as NOPD stafﬁng waned. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson’s office is contributing 200 deputies as well, spokesperson Casey McGee said.

Local businessman John Casbon, who is working with federal law enforcement on the security preparations, said bomb-sniffing dogs and all-terrain vehicles will make their presence felt all along parade routes, as well as air support. “If you have a bunch of

4,000 physicians in the state. The Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians has 1,600 members.

Avegno said New Orleans leaders have worked “very closely” with the state in past years to provide vaccines. The state receives federal funding for immunizations and typically has a large supply The two agencies have distributed about 8,100 vaccines together since 2020, according to the New Orleans Health Department.

“(LDH) would bring the vaccines, but we would have our staff there to publicize and to help give vaccinations,” Avegno said “So we could reach a lot more people.”

The city plans to increase its communications about vaccines because the state’s directive has likely caused confusion about whether they are available at all, Avegno said. Louisiana residents with Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance can still get vaccinations, usually at no cost, at pharmacies and health care providers. The health department will also ask the New Orleans City Council for more funding, Avegno said.

Last week, Avegno, also an emergency room physician, pointed the council to Louisiana’s high flu rates this year and an outbreak of measles in Texas, where 58 people have been infected, most of whom were unvaccinated. Thirteen have been hospitalized.

“This is not the time to be causing confusion and removing access to lifesaving treatment,” she said at a council meeting Thursday “This is the time to better understand how we can promote access for all.”

After her testimony, the City Council adopted a resolution supporting the health department’s efforts to continue vaccination campaigns. The resolution, which passed unanimously

drones over your head, you’re going to notice it. But it’ll be comforting,” Casbon said.

“We’ll have helicopters with very speciﬁc technology The Coast Guard with their high-deﬁnition camera systems,” he added. “We’re not trying to scare people into thinking if they come, they’re going to get blown up. Our whole thought is to put on an event without another (violent) event slipping in.

The federal resources available under the SEAR 1 designation include air patrols, cybersecurity checks and tactical response teams.

“We’re going to have ground crews all the way up, people undercover that are going to be all over the place, from the very beginning of the parade to the very end,” Casbon said.

Just how far those authorities will go to check coolers, barbecues and other items that could be considered suspicious along the routes was still being debated, Casbon said. But the goal is to keep Carnival as normal as

is a statement of support that has no force of law

“We couldn’t just sit back and not say anything on this issue,” said City Council Vice President Helena Moreno, who is running for New Orleans mayor

Other local doctors, who remember overﬂowing hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic and who see high census levels during respiratory illness season, also blasted the state’s decision.

“It becomes a tremendous burden on the health care system,” said Dr MarkAlain Dery, an infectious disease specialist in New Orleans. “Why are we taking away tools of public health practitioners that will make life better for people?”

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate. com.

possible.

“Anything that looks unnormal, we’re going to pack it down, take a harder look,” he said.

Still unclear is how heavily law enforcement aims to steel against vehicle access along miles of parade routes for Mardi Gras, which attracts nearly a million visitors to the city

Robert Hjortsberg, captain for the Krewe of Freret, said he was concerned over security on side streets to the lakeside of the St. Charles Avenue parade route.

Still, he said krewe captains were heartened by a meeting a few weeks with Eric DeLaune, the Department of Homeland Security ofﬁcial leading federal security for both the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras. A Louisiana native, DeLaune pledged to honor Mardi Gras traditions while trying to protect the city

“If this is done the way they’ve indicated to us,

they’re going to let us do what we do, just making it more safe,” Hjortsberg said. He said he hasn’t been told of any additional street closures or checkpoints planned along the route, although, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re doing that and not telling people.”

While the parades roll, Casbon said, float riders who see an emergency will be encouraged to raise signs reading “police.” The signs have been around awhile but have been largely ignored, he said.

“They haven’t been taken seriously People are very reluctant to hold a sign up and stop a parade,” Casbon said. But in the aftermath of the attack Jan. 1, when the city was awakened to the threat of terrorism, even rowdy ﬂoat riders have a security role to play, he said.

“Seeing something and raising the sign can make all the difference in the world,” he said.

Notice is hereby givenpursuanttoArticle7, Section 23(C) of theLouisiana Constitution and La.R.S.47:1705(B) thatapublic hearing of theBoardofCommissioners of Stonebridge NeighborhoodImprovementandBeautification District will be held at its regular meeting place, theStonebridgeGolfClub of NewOrleans, 1500 StonebridgeDr.,Gretna, LA 70056onTuesday, March25, 2025 at 6:00p.m.toconsider levying additional or increased millage rates withoutfurther voterapproval or adopting the adjustedmillagerates afterreassessment and rolling forwardtoratesnot to exceed theprior year’s maximum.The estimatedamountoftax revenues to be collected in thenextyear from theincreasedmillage is $1,056,616.74, and the amountofincrease in taxesattributable to the millageincrease is $15,497.05.

Immediately,followingthe public hearing,a public meeting of StonebridgeNeighborhood Improvementand Beautification District will be held withthe following agenda being considered: (1) Vote to adopt adjusted millage rate of 44.340 mills; (2)Votetoset forththe adjusted millagerateof44.340millsand roll forwardto45millsnot exceeding themaximum authorized rate of 45 mills.

Russia, U.S. agree to work toward ending Ukraine war

BY MATTHEW LEE and DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Russia and the U.S agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, the two countries’ top diplomats said after talks that reﬂected an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

In an interview with The Associated Press after the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

He stressed, however, that the talks — which were at-

tended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. ofﬁcials — marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done.

Lavrov echoed Rubio’s remarks and told reporters that “the conversation was very useful.”

“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” he said.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and special Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff joined Rubio at the table, along with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to the kingdom scheduled for Wednesday

European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

Improving relations

Ties between Russia and the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level in decades in recent years — a rift that has been widening ever since Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and only worsened after Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

The U.S., along with European nations, imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia in an effort to damage its economy And embassies in Washington and Moscow have been hit hard by expulsions of large numbers of

Republicans consider cuts and work requirements for Medicaid

BY AMANDA SEITZ, ANDREW DEMILLO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program. Millions more Americans signed up for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration, a shift lauded by Democrats as a success

But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrative tax cuts to corporations and wealthier Americans, now see a big target ripe for trimming. The $880 billion Medicaid program is ﬁnanced mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states. And states, too, have said they’re having trouble financing years of growth and sicker patients who enrolled in Medicaid

To whittle down the budget, the GOP-controlled Congress is eyeing work requirements for Medicaid It’s also considering paying a shrunken, fixed rate to states. All told, over the next decade, Republican lawmakers could try to siphon billions of dollars from the nearly-free health care coverage offered to the poorest Americans.

Weeks before Congress began debating those changes, Republican governors in Arkansas, Ohio and South Dakota were making moves to implement Medicaid work rules of their own, likely to be approved by President Donald Trump’s administration. And other cuts could be on the way Already on Friday,

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

the Republican administration announced it would shrink the Affordable Care Act’s navigator program annual budget by 90% to $10 million. Navigators are stationed throughout the country to help people enroll in ACA and Medicaid coverage and are credited with boosting the programs’ enrollment in recent years

What GOP is proposing Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has floated the idea of tying work to Medicaid.

“It’s common sense,” Johnson said “Little things like that make a big difference not only in the budgeting process but in the morale of the people. You know, work is good for you. You ﬁnd dignity in work.”

But about 92% of Medicaid enrollees are already working, attending school or caregiving, according to an analysis by KFF, a health policy research ﬁrm. Republicans have suggested a work requirement similar to the conditions for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps. Those ages 16 to 59 must work or volunteer at least

80 hours a month if they are not in school, caring for a child under age 6, disabled, pregnant or homeless. On average, a SNAP enrollee’s monthly household income is $852, and the enrollee typically receives $239 in beneﬁts.

During a GOP House retreat last month at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, Republicans said the requirement could motivate people to ﬁnd employment — maybe even a job that comes with health insurance.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California said the spending cuts should not be “on the back of the poor and needy” but instead target those who shouldn’t be getting the beneﬁt.

“Why should somebody literally sit on the beach and surf, buy their sandwiches from the food truck with their food stamps and then pick up low-cost housing and so on, while writing a book,” Issa said, noting that he was describing a constituent from more than a decade ago.

Other cuts on the table include a proposal to change the federal government’s reimbursement to a per-person limit.

diplomats, as well as other restrictions.

Rubio said Tuesday that ending the war in Ukraine could “unlock the door” for “incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and, frankly, economically on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term.”

His comments were further evidence of the remarkable U.S. reversal on Russia after years in which Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, led international efforts to isolate Moscow Tuesday’s meeting was meant to pave the way for a summit between Trump and Putin. After the talks ended, Ushakov and Waltz said no date has been set yet for that summit. Ushakov told Russian television that a meeting was “unlikely” to take

place next week, while Waltz said he thought it could be arranged in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lavrov mentioned the same three goals as Rubio and said that Washington and Moscow agreed to appoint representatives to carry out “regular consultations” on Ukraine.

“I have reason to believe that the American side has started to better understand our position” the Russian foreign minister said.

Witkoff said the meeting was “positive, upbeat, constructive. Everybody was there to get to the right outcome.”

The meeting marked the most extensive contact between the two countries since Moscow’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India nearly two

years ago, but tensions remained high.

Concerns from allies

The recent U.S. diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Ukraine and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that won’t be favorable to them.

Kyiv’s absence at Tuesday’s talks rankled many Ukrainians, and France called an emergency meeting of European Union countries and the U.K. on Monday to discuss the war Kyiv’s participation in such talks was a bedrock of U.S. policy under Biden.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the talks were aimed at determining how serious the Russians are about achieving peace and whether detailed negotiations can start.

Woman linked to 6 killings ordered held without bail in Md.

BY LEA SKENE, HOLLY RAMER and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press

CUMBERLAND Md. The lead-

er of a cultlike group connected to six killings in three states was ordered held without bail Tuesday in Maryland, where she faces trespassing and other charges.

Jack LaSota, 34, and two others arrested with her on Sunday appeared via videoconference for bail hearings in Allegany District Court. A judge ordered all three held without bail, describing them as dangerous ﬂight risks.

Allegany County State’s

Attorney James Elliott said during the hearing Tuesday that LaSota has faked her own death in the past and “appears to be the leader of an extremist group” called the Zizians that has been linked to multiple deaths.

But LaSota, who is known online as Ziz, asked for pretrial release saying she was homeless with no means of traveling. Speaking haltingly, she also repeatedly requested a vegan diet, saying she could starve otherwise and was already “in a mild state of delirium” due to lack of food.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” she told the judge

Members of the group have been tied to the death of a woman during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022, the landlord’s subsequent slaying in January, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple in between

Most recently, the group has been linked to a highway shootout in Vermont that left a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a car passenger dead

The Pennsylvania victims were the parents of Michelle Zajko, who was arrested with LaSota and Daniel Blank

All three were charged with trespassing and obstructing law enforcement after a Frostburg, Maryland, resident told police that three “suspicious” people had parked two box trucks on his property and asked to camp there for a month The trucks were found in a largely remote wooded area near the Maryland-Pennsylvania line, according to police.

Zajko, 32, also was charged with resisting arrest and carrying a handgun; LaSota was charged with having a gun in a vehicle.

They were dressed in black and two wore gun belts holding ammunition, according to police. Officers found a rifle in the back of one truck and a handgun on the front floorboard. Zajko, who refused to put her hands behind her back and was taken to the ground, also was carrying a handgun, police said Elliott, the prosecutor said two other guns Zajko purchased were recovered in connection with the Jan. 20 shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Chris Maland, 44, following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont. Felix Bauckholt, a passenger

in the car, also died, and the driver, Teresa Youngblut, has pleaded not guilty to federal ﬁrearms charges

Officials have said the guns they were carrying were bought by a person of interest in the Dec 31 2022, deaths of Richard and Rita Zajko in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, and that Youngblut had been in close contact with a person of interest in a homicide in Vallejo, California.

Maximilian Snyder, who applied for a marriage license with Youngblut in November, is charged with the Jan. 17 stabbing death of Curtis Lind, a Vallejo landlord who had survived an earlier attack by members of the Zizian group and was set to testify against them.

Ofﬁcials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation, but Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists met online, shared anarchist beliefs and became increasingly violent.

Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings included topics such as radical veganism, gender identity and artiﬁcial intelligence. At the middle of it all is LaSota, a transgender woman who published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz.

Rebecca FrancoeurBreeden, a public defender representing LaSota, said she had spoken with LaSota’s mother twice since the arrest. The attorney noted LaSota’s educational achievements, including a degree in computer engineering

“This is a very, very bright person we’re dealing with,” she said.

Francouer-Breeden also represented the other two defendants. Zajko and Blank did not directly address the charges against them during the hearing or through their attorney who described them all as high-achieving young people and listed some of their educational and professional accomplishments.

Francouer-Breeden described Blank, 26, as a “brilliant young man” with serious mental health concerns and said he was listed as a missing or endangered person before his arrest. Blank’s stepfather also addressed the judge, saying he hadn’t seen Blank in two years but was willing to get him housing locally to help ensure he shows up for court.

Pennsylvania state police records describe Blank as Zajko’s housemate in Vermont. In January 2023, police investigating the shooting deaths of Zajko’s parents detained both LaSota and Blank at a hotel where Zajko was staying. Blank was not charged. LaSota was charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

BY TY ONEIL Associated Press

LASVEGAS A Nevada judge on Tuesday postponed the murder trial of the only suspect ever charged in the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur for nearly a year, saying she had little choice given newdevelopmentspresented by his defense attorneys and the need to ensure a fair trial.

The trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, previously set for next month in Las Vegas, has been rescheduled for Feb. 9, 2026. The judge ordered prosecutors and the defense to return to court over the summer for a status hearing.

“It looks like there are quite a few things that are left to be done to get this case prepared so that Mr Davis can have effective assistance of counsel,” Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said during a short hearing.

When asked by the judge if he was OK with moving the trial that far out, Davis agreed.

Davis’ defense team ﬁled a motion Friday seeking more time, saying critical investigative work had to be done and witnesses needed to be interviewed to ensure he gets a fair trial. The lawyers said a private investigator identiﬁed witnesses who can testify that Davis was not at the scene of the shooting.

Attorney Carl Arnold, who is leading the defense, said the case involves decadesold allegations and critical facts have yet to be fully examined.

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in a BMW being driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight. They were waiting at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunﬁre erupted. Davis, an ex-gang leader

is accused of

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN LOCHER

BRIEFS

Wall Street hits record on S&P 500 gain

U.S. stocks crept to a record as the S&P 500 nudged higher after a quiet Tuesday of trading.

The main measure of Wall Street’s health rose to finish just above its all-time closing high set last month. Most of the stocks within the index rose, as it danced around the milestone through the day

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite were both up slightly

Entergy helped lead the way after rallying 6%. The electric company, which serves customers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas, reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected That helped offset a 5.5% drop for Conagra Brands, which lowered its forecasts for upcoming proﬁt and other financial measures. The food company said supply issues have hurt two of its product lines: frozen meals containing chicken and frozen vegetables. It also said shifting values of foreign currencies are hurting its proﬁts.

Meta Platforms weighed on the market after falling 2.8% It was the ﬁrst drop for the parent of Facebook and Instagram since Jan. 16, and it had leapt more than 20% over that 20-day winning streak.

U.S. stocks have climbed back to record heights thank in large part to stronger-than-expected profit reports, even after big disruptions recently seemed set to derail Wall Street’s long, upward trend that began in 2022.

Hanging over everything has been the threat of a punishing global trade war following President Donald Trump’s announcements of tariffs. But Wall Street has been taking such actions increasingly in stride, believing they are merely tools for negotiations and that they’ll ultimately prove to be less painful for markets and the economy than they may seem initially KFC moving corporate office to Texas

Kentucky Fried Chicken is being uprooted from its ancestral home state in a shake-up that will relocate its U.S. corporate ofﬁce to Texas, the chain’s parent company said Tuesday The KFC chain — launched by Colonel Harland Sanders and his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices — will be based in Plano, Texas, and about 100 KFC corporate employees will be relocated in the next six months, said Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Moving the corporate ofﬁce from Louisville brought a swift response from the city’s mayor. “I am disappointed to learn that Yum Brands will move its KFC employees to Texas — especially since the brand was born here and is synonymous with Kentucky,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement. Yum said the move is part of its broader plans to designate two brand headquarters in the U.S. — in Plano and Irvine, California. KFC and Pizza Hut will be headquartered in Plano, while Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill will remain based in Irvine, it said.

H&E receives purchase offer

BY TIMOTHY BOONE Business editor

Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services, which announced last month it had reached a $4.8 billion deal to be purchased by United Rentals, said it has received a nearly $5.3 billion offer from Herc Rentals

Herc is offering to purchase H&E with a combination of cash and stock that comes to about $104.59 a share. That’s more than the $92 United Rentals said it would pay per share of H&E.

When H&E announced the United Rentals deal on Jan. 14, the company said it had a 35-day “go shop”

period to negotiate a better offer. That period ended Monday

Florida-based Herc has 440 locations in the U.S. and Canada. It has 16 locations in south Louisiana.

H&E said it plans to enter into a merger agreement with Herc on Wednesday, after it satisfies requirements under the United Rentals agreement. That includes paying a $63.5 million termination fee, which Herc said it will cover the cost of.

The deal is set to close in the middle of the year, although H&E noted in a news release there are no assurances the Herc deal will happen.

H&E, founded in 1961, is the ﬁfth largest rental equipment compa-

nies in the U.S., with more than 160 branches in 31 states. Its rental ﬂeet is valued at $2.9 billion. While both companies have a strong concentration of locations in the South, Herc has a major presence in New England, the upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

H&E has a heavy concentration in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho.

H&E is a general rental business, while Herc specializes in products for areas such as power generation, pump, HVAC and ﬂoor care. In recent years, H&E has taken aggressive measures, selling off its crane business in 2021 and its earthmoving distributorships in 2022 to concentrate on equipment rental. H&E also bought up smaller equipment companies in the Midwest and West.

Analysts

Eggs challenge small businesses

Shortages and price hikes impacting all from farms to bakeries

BY MAE ANDERSON AP business writer

NEW YORK

Small-business owners that rely on eggs for their products are facing sticker shock because the usually reliable staple is in short supply

Avian ﬂu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, causing U.S egg prices to skyrocket. The average price of a dozen Grade A eggs in U.S. cities reached $4.95 in January, eclipsing the previous record of $4.82 set two years earlier and more than double the low of $2.04 that was recorded in August 2023. The Agriculture Department predicts prices will soar another 20% this year

Most owners are taking the increase in stride, looking at it as just one of many hurdles they constantly face. But if the problem persists, they could be forced to raise prices or adjust their products.

Liz Berman is the owner of The Sleepy Baker in Natick Massachusetts She specializes in custom, from-scratch cakes but also sells cupcakes, cookies, pies and other baked goods.

Eggs are just one of the baking ingredients experiencing price shocks. Items such as cocoa powder and butter have gone up as well. And price isn’t the only issue.

“It’s not just the cost of eggs, right? It’s also just the availability,” she said. She prefers to buy medium-sized white-shelled eggs, buying a box with 18 dozen eggs, but two weeks ago those were unavailable, so

she had to buy brown eggs in individual cartons of 12.

“It sounds kind of silly but when I’m the sole proprietor and I have a huge volume of work, to have to take a dozen eggs out of my walk-in at a time as opposed to a ﬂat of eggs, it’s just it’s a pain,” Berman said.

She doesn’t think prices will ease anytime soon. Cocoa powder prices have been elevated for years.

“I think ultimately I’m going to have to increase my prices, which is hard because that’s going to mean that there’s a category of customer that won’t order from me anymore,” Berman said.

At Daisies, a pasta restaurant in Chicago, chef/partner Joe Frillman and chef/partner Leigh Omilinsky haven’t raised prices but are thinking of adjusting menu items. Omilinsky said she is thinking of adding more vegan and egg-free desserts to the menu and has been working more with ﬂaxseeds. She said the shortage has made her more conscious of the ingredients she is using and wasting less.

“You know, if we need egg yolks we are absolutely saving those whites,” she said.

Depending on how long the egg shortage lasts, they could adjust menu items too, Frillman said.

Brazil to join OPEC+, group of major oil-exporting nations

BY FABIANO MAISONNAVE Associated Press

BRASILIA, Brazil Brazil’s government on Tuesday approved joining OPEC+, a group of major oilexporting nations, signaling the country’s evolution into a major oil state just nine months ahead of hosting the United Nations’ annual climate summit.

The National Council for Energy Policy’s approval came in response to an ofﬁcial invitation in 2023. The group includes the 12 members of OPEC, the longstanding group set

up to coordinate oil production to stabilize markets, plus 10 more signiﬁcant oil-producing nations with Russia by far the largest.

Though non-OPEC members agree to cooperate with OPEC nations, Brazil won’t have any binding obligation such as production cuts, Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said at a news conference. The participation will be limited to the Charter of Cooperation, a permanent forum for OPEC and OPEC+ countries to discuss industry-related issues. The South American country will not partici-

pate in decisions.

Silveira called the charter merely “a forum for discussing strategies among oil-producing countries. We should not be ashamed of being oil producers. Brazil needs to grow, develop and create income and jobs.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began his third term in 2023 touting himself as an environmental defender and has worked to reduce deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and to protect Indigenous rights. But he has also argued that new oil revenues could ﬁnance a transition to green energy

In recent weeks, he has pressed the country’s environmental regulator to approve exploratory drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River, one of the most biodiverse regions of the world.

Brazil is the world’s seventhlargest oil producer, with about 4.3 million barrels daily, or 4% of the world´s output, according to Energy Information Administration, a U.S. government agency In 2024, crude oil became the country´s top export product, accounting for 13.3% of Brazil’s foreign sales, surpassing soy

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GEORGE WALKER IV

The price is displayed Feb 12 on the edge of an empty shelf used to display eggs at a grocery store in Nashville, Tenn.

BY SAMY MAGDY and NATALIE MELZER Associated Press

CAIRO — A top Hamas ofﬁcial says the militant group will free six living Israeli hostages on Saturday and return the bodies of four others on Thursday, a surprise acceleration in releases that apparently comes in return for Israel’s allowing mobile homes and construction equipment into the devastated Gaza Strip.

The six are the last living hostages set to be freed during the ceasefire’s first phase in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The warring sides have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Hamas leader Khalil alHayya, in prerecorded remarks released Tuesday, said the “Bibas family” would be included in the handover of four bodies, apparently referring to Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kﬁr, who for many Israelis embody the captives’ plight.

Israel has not confirmed their deaths, and the prime minister’s office urged the public not to distribute “photos, names and rumors” after the announcement by Hamas.

“In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil,” surviving members of the Bibas family said in a statement released Tuesday by a group representing the relatives of hostages. “Until we receive deﬁnitive conﬁrmation, our journey is not over.”

Israel has said it was gravely concerned about the Bibas family, while Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war Yarden Bibas, the husband and father, was kidnapped separately and released this month.

Kﬁr, who was 9 months old at the time, was the youngest hostage taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war A video of the abduction showed Shiri swaddling her redheaded boys in a blanket and being whisked away by armed men. The six living hostages slated for release are Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, and Avera

Mengistu, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Tuesday Cohen, 27, Shem Tov, 22, and Wenkert, 23, were abducted from a music festival. Shoham was taken from the hard-hit community of Kibbutz Beeri. Al-Sayed, 36, and Mengistu, 39, have both been held since crossing into Gaza years before the Oct. 7 attack. The release of all six this week would mark an acceleration of the ceasefire deal, which called for Hamas to release three living hostages Saturday, with three more to be freed a week later. When the deal was made, it called only for the bodies of the dead to be returned by the end of the first phase. Israel is expected to continue releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including many serving life sentences for deadly attacks, in exchange for the hostages. Others were detained without charge. During the first phase, Israel is also due to release all women and children seized from Gaza since the war began.

Equipment allowed in

An Israeli ofﬁcial, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to allow long-requested mobile homes and construction equipment into Gaza as part of efforts to accelerate the hostages’ release.

Hamas last week threatened to hold up releases, citing the refusal to allow in mobile homes and heavy equipment among other alleged violations of the truce.

Israel began allowing entry of rubble-removing equipment Tuesday, according to

an Associated Press journalist in southern Gaza and Egypt’s state-run media. The AP journalist saw two bulldozers clearing rubble in an area near the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing. An Egyptian driver told AP that dozens of bulldozers and tractors were at another crossing, awaiting Israeli permission to enter Rebuilding Gaza could cost $53.2 billion, according to a report released Tuesday by the World Bank, the U.N. and the European Union. The report identiﬁed almost $30 billion in damage from the war, nearly half reflecting destruction of homes.

Palestinians want to stay

The ceasefire that began in mid-January has paused the deadliest fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, surged aid into devastated Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to their homes as Israeli forces withdrew from much of the territory

Israelis and Palestinians marked 500 days of war on Monday

Major challenges are ahead. Israel’s government says it wants to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza. But the militant group quickly reasserted its control of the territory during the ceaseﬁre despite losing leaders and many ﬁghters. In addition, U.S. President Donald Trump ’s proposal to permanently remove Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians so the U.S. can redevelop the territory has been rejected by the Arab world and by the Palestinians, who say they want to stay in their homeland.

Trump to sign new executive orders while joint interview airs

Trump’s direction.

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

WEST

PALM BEACH, Fla. —

President Donald Trump on Tuesday was set to sign new executive orders from his Florida home while his ﬁrst joint TV interview with adviser Elon Musk airs in prime time.

Trump’s Florida home will also be the setting for an awards program by a conservative group led by Mike Flynn who briefly served as national security adviser in the Republican president’s ﬁrst term.

Trump was spending part of Tuesday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The White House had no immediate comment on the executive actions Trump was signing later Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach.

In the first weeks of Trump’s second term, he has used executive orders signed statements about how the president wants the federal government to be managed to address issues including border security, the environment and transgender rights, among others.

The White House said the event will be opened for press coverage, after initially saying it would not be allowed.

Trump and Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, gave their first joint interview to Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel.

The interview was taped on Friday at the White House and is set to air as Musk leads Trump’s effort to cut federal spending and slash the federal workforce.

Musk has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress and others for the methods he and his team at DOGE are using to cut spending, including foreign aid, and eliminate jobs across the bureaucracy

The Fox News interview also follows Musk’s appearance with Trump in the Oval Office last week, when both defended Musk’s approach to federal cost-cutting.

In an excerpt from the interview that Fox News released on Sunday, Musk said he “used to be adored by the left” but “less so these days” because of the work he’s doing at

“They call it Trump derangement syndrome You don’t realize how real this is until you can’t reason with people,” Musk said, adding that normal conversations with Democrats about the president are difﬁcult because “it’s like they’ve become completely irrational.”

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club is the setting Tuesday night for an awards program by America’s Future, which is led by Flynn to preserve individual rights and promote American values and traditions, according to its website.

The event, celebrating American exceptionalism, will honor one member from the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and the Space Force. The event includes a poolside reception, musical performances and dinner in Mar-a-Lago’s Grand Ballroom, where other award presentations are expected from a lineup that includes such names as Russell Brand, Ted Nugent and Mike Tyson. It’s unclear whether Trump will participate in the event.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ABDEL KAREEM HANA

Displaced Palestinians, traveling in vehicles, wait to cross through a security checkpoint at the Netzarim corridor as they make their way from central Gaza to the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

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NOLA.COM | Wednesday, February 19, 2025 1bn

Some N.O. schools might close, officials say

and facilities

District braces for enrollment declines

BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer

Some New Orleans schools

might eventually need to consolidate or close as the district braces for long-term enrollment declines, a School Board member said Tuesday

stafﬁng and student services can lead to better student outcomes.

changes.

The suggestion came after a consultant told the Orleans Parish School Board that despite a slight uptick in students this year, enrollment was still projected to decline long-term and many school buildings already have unﬁlled seats.

Historic status

effort withdrawn

La. officials praise Trump for change to St. John the Baptist Parish area

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer

An effort to grant historic status to an area of St. John the Baptist Parish due in part to its role as a cradle of Creole history has been withdrawn by the National Park Service — and state ofﬁcials are thanking President Donald Trump for the change.

The NPS, in charge of determining places across the country worthy of special historic classiﬁcation, withdrew the proposal after a request from state ofﬁcials, who announced the decision at a Tuesday news conference.

State ofﬁcials, business leaders and local representatives touted it as a win for economic development in the largely rural area on the West Bank of St. John. But environmental activists ﬁghting industry there — and supporting efforts for historic designation slammed the ruling as troubling and ultimately ineffective.

An 11-mile stretch of land in St. John was deemed a strong candidate for National Historic Landmark designation last fall, a category given to some of the most important historic properties in the country The historic district withdrawal announced Tuesday refers to a separate and much broader category, encompassing places of local, but not necessarily national, consideration

The 200-page study on the area stressed the signiﬁcance of the region’s agricultural, economic and cultural history particularly its Black history It is home to former plantations that have recently been reconﬁgured to highlight the true story of slavery and its legacy Whether the area will ultimately be deemed a national landmark is still under consideration and not affected by the withdrawal.

“It is indeed a time to celebrate,” said St. John Parish President Jaclyn Hotard. “This is a wonderful day because we’re sending the message to everyone that the river region is open for business.” Aurelia Giacometto, secretary of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, described the historic preservation process underway in St. John as an example of “egregious federal government overreach.” She lauded Trump’s Department of Interior, where the National Park Service sits, for withdrawing the designation, and read a similar statement from Gov Jeff Landry

“Eight days after President Trump was sworn into office, Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality requested that the new secretary of interior reevaluate this determination and we asked them to withdraw their

At least nine schools are partially empty due to low enrollment, while many other campuses require millions of dollars in upgrades, said Holly Reid, chief of policy and portfolio for New Schools for New Orleans, which conducts an annual analysis of the school system’s enrollment

The district could save money by phasing out under-enrolled schools and by relocating schools in crumbling buildings to newer facilities, Reid said. The savings could go toward hiring additional teachers and social workers or funding extracurricular programs, she added.

“When we have sustainable schools that are enrolling at healthy levels in high quality facilities, that is when these things are better able to be covered,” she said, adding money spent on

Board member Olin Parker was receptive to the suggestions, telling charter school operators to consider closing or merging schools with low enrollments rather than waiting for district ofﬁcials to “make hard decisions” for them.

He also asked NOLA Public Schools interim Superintendent Fateama Fulmore to consider using her authority to relocate or consolidate schools, and told school leaders to brace for

“We need the school leader community to understand that when the superintendent does make a difficult decision,” he said, “it is for the beneﬁt of the entire district, and is not picking on a speciﬁc (charter school) network.”

Public school enrollment in New Orleans inched up by about 250 students this school year, bucking a statewide decline. Reid said the slight uptick may

SWEET MUSIC

BY LARA NICHOLSON Staff writer

A family-owned food company claiming to be one of the original creators of the muffuletta has expanded its footprint in Jefferson Parish with a new facility Perrone and Sons, a 100-yearold wholesale food producer and distributor, cut the ribbon on its second location on Justin Road in Metairie with parish

SOPHIA GERMER

STAFF PHOTOS By

TOP: Kenneth Hagans, Timothy ‘Tuba Tim’ Brown and Gregory Jenkins, of Kenneth Hagans Brass Band, perform during the Krewe of PACE Mardi Gras Ball at PACE Greater New Orleans on Tuesday for program participants and their families at the Shirley Landry Benson PACE Center at St. Cecilia in New Orleans. Krewe of PACE celebrated classic New Orleans confections with the theme of ‘How Sweet It Is.’ Each member of the royal court represented a New Orleans sweet treat.

LEFT: Carter Speed and Gayle Edmond pose as the king and queen of the Krewe of PACE.

No arrests made in December case

BY GABRIELLA KILLETT Staff writer

house instead. “I just screamed and dropped to the ﬂoor,” Miles said. “It was just

Judge upholds rejection of solar farm in St. James Parish

Vacherie project would have been among largest in La.

BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer

A state district judge has upheld St. James Parish’s decision last year to reject a 2,200-acre solar farm that would have added to Entergy Louisiana’s renewable portfolio, ﬁnding the local government acted with “appropriate and well-founded concerns” about how the large facility would ﬁt with the parish land-use plan.

The ruling on the Vacherie project, which would have been one of the largest solar farms in the state, comes as renewable projects face new headwinds under the Trump White House’s scrutiny of billions of dollars in loans, grants and tax credits offered under the Biden administration to power the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels.

Even before the new administration took power in January though, solar and other renewable projects with big footprints or visual impacts have seen resistance from local governments across the nation.

In Louisiana in recent years, several parish governments have

sought to slow things down until they could adopt their own landuse rules, though, unlike in St. James’ case, many of those projects later were approved.

Demand for the facilities is being driven by new and existing industries looking for power with low or no carbon impact, Entergy and other company ofﬁcials and economic analysts have said.

In a 21-page, point-by-point ruling, Judge Jason Verdigets found that developer D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments and Ten-R Company, the local landowner group, failed to prove that any of the eight reasons that the Parish Council had offered last June for rejecting the project were without good justiﬁcation Verdigets, of the 23rd Judicial District Court, found the 4-3 council decision to reject DESRI’s project was narrowly tailored and rationally tied to the solar farm’s suitability with the land-use plan that calls for agriculture and future homes in the area.

Even after DESRI came back with a 40% smaller version from earlier plans with visual and big land buffers — as well as a nearly $4.7 million community benefits package for local governments, education and recreation — the judge found the council acted well within its legislative discretion.

“The council was empowered to

turn down the proffered financial benefits of the application, when it felt the negative impact on the land-use pattern of the parish outweighed the benefits,” Verdigets concluded.

He also rejected the idea that the council acted unreasonably in turning down the project when it had approved a 218-acre solar farm in the same area in 2019, saying the 2,200-acre project would be “radically different” in scale and the largest in the parish’s history

The solar farm would have sold 360 megawatts of power to Entergy Louisiana, generated $154.7 million in local taxes over 35 years and produced 400 temporary construction jobs with a $56.7 million payroll.

Some St James residents and parish ofﬁcials had aired concerns about the visual impact of acres of solar panels, their potential effect on the sugar cane industry and whether a project with three permanent jobs was the best use of a large tract of land along the Mississippi River

In an interview, parish land-use attorney Victor Franckiewicz Jr noted the judge’s sweeping support for the parish’s decision and the eight factors it used to justify the vote.

“He ruled in favor of the parish on every single point,” Franckiewicz said.

FOOD

Continued from page 1B

and president of Perrone and Sons “I’m proud to stand here and say all this comes from right here in Jefferson Parish.”

Perrone and Sons also purchased an additional industrial warehouse nearby at 1925 L and A Road for $3.075 million earlier this year, which they plan to use as a distribution center Bartholomew Perrone and Salvador Lupo founded the company as an Italian food importer and grocery store, called Progress Grocery There, the company says the iconic New Orleans muffuletta sandwich was born.

Lupo, however, also established a neighboring store on the same block of Decatur, Central Grocery, in 1906, which is more often credited as the originator of the sandwich.

“While Progress Grocery may be less recognized for their contribution to the creation of the muffuletta, the retailer’s role was signiﬁcant, making it the city’s best-kept secret in the sandwich’s origin story,” JEDCO wrote in a statement.

ANSWERS

Continued from page 1B

Thomas rode to a party with friends that night before going to a second party Uptown. Police have told Miles that once Thomas and his friend got into the ride-share to come home, they were followed by another vehicle. On their way home, the boys stopped at McDonald’s on Claiborne Avenue, and the vehicle waited for them. It followed, and shots rang out, Miles said. Thomas was a sophomore at McDonogh 35 High School. Before that, he went to Langston Hughes Academy from prekindergarten through eighth grade. While at Langston Hughes, Thomas was also

Progress Grocery closed down in 2000, and Perrone and Sons moved to Metairie the following year to continue as a food wholesaler

Today, the company employs 90 people and distributes more than 7,000 products to restaurants, grocery stores and foodservice operations nationwide. In 2023 alone, the company produced more than 2 million sandwiches, according to JEDCO. Perrone and Sons also received JEDCO’s 2024 Small Business of the Year Award for its local significance and recent growth

“When you think of a busi-

on drumline and played the snare drum, Miles said Thomas had four brothers and a little sister and was always an athlete who had played nearly every sport, his mother said. Recently he had decided to focus in on baseball.

Miles said Thomas always enjoyed being outside and was known for his outspoken, energetic personality

“He was the life of our house,” she said. “I don’t even know what to think somedays.”

Miles said her son wasn’t a ﬁghter, but was known for joking around and never met a stranger She said she would warn him that not everyone was his friend.

“We even had Bible study,” she said. “’Brothers turn on brothers You have to be care-

ness that survives this long, you do it by customer service and being there for your customers,” said at-large council member Scott Walker Perrone and Sons’ ribboncutting is the fourth grandopening Jefferson Parish has celebrated in less than a week. Last Thursday, UBE Corporation broke ground on its new $491 million plant on Cornerstone’s campus in Waggaman, and RNGD launched its new headquarters in Metairie.

Officials also opened the Primary Workspace in Gretna last Friday, a coworking and event space built inside a historic schoolhouse.

ful.’”

Going to family therapy has helped her in grief, Miles said Her youngest son, 11, also sees a counselor at his school to cope with the loss of Thomas.

“It’s just been hard to live life continuously,” Miles said.

Email Gabriella Killett at gkillett@theadvocate.com.

LOTTERY

MONDAY, FEB 17, 2025

PICK 3: 6-3-4 PICK 4: 2-0-7-9 PICK 5: 8-1-5-1-6

Among those reasons were that large land buffers and a planned 12-foot-high bamboo screen were insufﬁcient to hide the panels that could be 16 feet tall, that the solar project removed sugar cane land from production and traded its jobs for a few permanent ones, and that the project was targeted for land set aside for agriculture and homes when industrial tracts were available elsewhere in the parish.

“Thus, this industrial-style use is inconsistent with the parish’s landuse ordinance and comprehensive plan,” Verdigets wrote. “So, while the facility would represent growth by the addition of physical structures, that is not the growth the parish seeks in their goals and objectives for Vacherie, as a matter of public policy.”

It was not clear if DESRI and the landowners will appeal. A representative for DESRI said in a statement that the company is “disappointed in the decision” and “is currently evaluating options to advance our potential investment in St. James Parish.”

“Solar is low-cost and locally generated power that supports our economy We stand by this project,” the company statement added.

An attorney for the landowner group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The landowners had filed a

SCHOOLS

Continued from page 1B

be due to an increase in Latino students across the district and the return of some students who left the public school system during the pandemic to attend a private school or homeschool or who stopped attending any school. The enrollment gains last year came from school-age students, rather than students entering kindergarten or starting high school.

But even with the uptick, demographic forecasts show that enrollment will likely decline as birth rates continue to decline.

Already, NOLA Public Schools has too many schools and not enough

HISTORIC

Continued from page 1B

decision,” Giacometto said at a news conference at the Port of South Louisiana on Tuesday

A few weeks later, the National Park Service sent a letter that the consideration of this area for two historic districts was “premature and untimely.” The reason for the withdrawal did not have to do with the history of the area, but because there was no longer a project that could impact the land.

At the center of this reignited fight between historic preservationists, politicians and environmental activists is Greenﬁeld LLC, a company that sought to build a massive grain elevator in the contested area. Greenfield

students.

separate suit against the parish over the same issues and it was consolidated with the DESRI suit. Verdigets’ ruling, which was signed Feb. 4, applied to both cases.

Several years ago, DESRI had originally proposed a much larger facility — about 3,900 acres — on some of the same sugar cane land, but the Planning Commission blocked it in 2022. The Parish Council then adopted a moratorium on solar farms until a new ordinance regulating those projects could be written.

Once the ordinance was created with DESRI’s help, the developers came back in March 2024 with the 2,200-acre proposal with buffers, screening and other measures called for in the new ordinance, plus the incentive package.

The company had also done its own polling showing that 61% of residents in the parish were likely or very likely to support solar in St. James.

But the new rules didn’t create a solar farm use, so the project was proposed on agricultural and residential land for which DESRI would need an exception, giving the council discretionary power to weigh factors for and against.

David J. Mitchell can be reached at dmitchell@ theadvocate.com.

Districtwide, enrollment is at about 90% of target levels, based on schools’ capacity Nine schools have enrollments that are below 80% of target levels.

School funding is based on enrollment. Schools with too few students can be expensive and inefﬁcient to maintain as operating and upkeep costs start to exceed revenue. Meanwhile about 5,900 students or 14% of the total — attend schools in low-quality buildings that would require about $100 million in repairs to “bring them up to snuff,” Reid said.

In recent years, district ofﬁcials have sought to get more students in higher-quality buildings, a strategy sometimes called

withdrew its application last summer, blaming delays in federal permitting that the historic preservation process had lengthened.

Lynda Van Davis, counsel for Greenﬁeld, said the company is going to develop the land of the proposed grain elevator

“We’re looking at all options that are available,” she said. Environmental activists Joy and Jo Banner opposed the industrial development in their community of Wallace. The Banner sisters, who run the advocacy organization The Descendants Project, have been embroiled in lawsuits relating to the project, over controversial zoning changes and free speech.

“district optimization” or “right-sizing.” They have also ordered some charter schools to close, citing both poor academic performance and low enrollment.

Nine schools have closed since New Schools for New Orleans began studying enrollment trends in 2022, with some volunteering to merge with other schools or shut down due to dwindling student numbers. As enrollment continues to wane, more schools are likely to have empty seats — and ofﬁcials will have to decide whether the district can afford to keep them open. “It’s not just looking at this year’s snapshot,” Reid said. “It’s knowing that we will have fewer students in the future.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Joy Banner said. “The history is not going anywhere.”

Chris Cody, a lawyer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has advocated for the designation, downplayed the withdrawal of the area from consideration. He said any future developer that needed a federal permit must still go through a review taking into account potential damage to historic areas. He said it would be “unimaginable” if the historic preservation process yielded a different conclusion. The 200-page historic study highlighting the significance of the area and the previous eligibility of the district remain on the record for developers hoping to build there.

Email Josie Abugov at josie.abugov@ theadvocate.com.

Rusty Perrone, president of Perrone and Sons, speaks during the grand opening of the company’s new production facility in Metairie on Tuesday.

prepare muffulettas at Perrone and Sons’ new production facility

many ‐

Cascio, Nicholas

Crotty, Helen

Fontenot, Eugene

Fowler, Richard

Germany, Robert

Hodge, Patrick

James, Cornelius

Johnson Jr., Richard Jones, Ruby

Kimble, William Lowenburg,Anne

Lusignan, Penny

Oliver, Elma

Patrick, Patricia Picot, Mary

Ricard, Edna

Satterlee, Gerard Schroeder Sr., Lloyd

Leitz-Eagan

James, Cornelius

New Orleans

Charbonnet

Jones, Ruby Greenwood

yssa Cas s Devin Schneider (Amanda), Daniel Schneider (Geo‐vanna); cousin Joel Sclafani and many greatnieces and great-nephews Nick also leaves behind his precious Allie "We will al‐ways carry your memory in our hearts." Nick gradu‐ated from Abramson High School and was retired from Winn-Dixie Grocery Stores and Savoie’s Meats The family would like to express a special thank you to the employees of Enhabit Hospice and the Peristyle at Beau West Rel‐atives and friends are in‐vited to visit Greenwood Funeral Home, 5200 Canal Blvd. New Orleans LA 70124, on Saturday, Febru‐ary 22, 2025, starting at 9:00 a.m. A Memorial Mass will follow the visitation at 11:00 a.m The burial will be in Greenwood Ceme‐tery. We also invite you to share your thoughts, fond memories, and condo‐lences online at www greenwoodfh com. Your shared memories will help us celebrate Nick’s life and keep his memory alive

Crotty, Helen Lee

of Arthur “Red” Fontenot, Jr., the late Denise Fontenot late Ethaniel “Black” Fontenot and late Anthony “Boo” Fontenot. He was a man of resilience and stood on his word During his time on earth, he was a devoted Saints fan before and while ﬁght‐ing cancer He enjoyed ﬁshing bowling and hang‐ing out with family He leaves to cherish his son and daughter, ex-wife Cheryl W. Fontenot, son-inlaw, a devoted cousin Wilbert Perryman three nephews, one niece, one great-niece, two aunts Cheryl, Slyvia, uncle Clarence Fontenot and a host of cousins and de‐voted friends All family and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Service at Majestic Mortuary, 1833 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd , New Orleans, La. 70113 on Friday, February 21, 2025, Visitation at 10 a.m. Ser‐vice at 11 a.m. Burial will be private Due to COVID19, everyone attending is encouraged to wear masks and adhere to social dis‐tancing. Professional arrangements entrusted to Majestic Mortuary Service, Inc. (504) 523-5872.

developing plywood clientsinthe United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Finland,and China.

Robert participated in the first seminar of its kind to establish plywood standardsinBrazil in 2000. He was amember of the Governor's task force for control of theFormosan termitein1998 and 1999, and he held aUSpatent as an inventor of atype of panel tongue and groove system. After retirement, Robert continued to work as aplywood and panel industry consultant.Hewas amember of the Forest Products Research Society for over fiftyyears and a member of theLouisiana Forestry Association. He was active in many civic affairs throughout the years and was also a Bossier Parish Community College adjunct faculty member for six years (1977 -1983). He held aBSin Wood Technology from LSU (1959) and an MBA from Louisiana Tech University (1976). Robert was amember of Holy Trinity Catholic Church for many years and served as alay reader, Eucharistic Minister, and Parish Council member.

Hodge, Patrick

Lake Lawn Metairie

Satterlee, Gerard

Schroeder Sr., Lloyd

Majestic Mortuary

Fontenot, Eugene

Johnson Jr., Richard Oliver, Elma

Murray Henderson

Ricard, Edna

Professional

Picot, Mary West Bank

Mothe

Crotty, Helen

Fowler, Richard Lusignan, Penny

Obituaries

Nicholas Philip

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Nicholas Philip Cascio on January 17, 2025, at the age of 71. Nick was born on July 11, 1953, in New Orleans, LA, to John J Cascio Jr and Josephine F Grisaﬁ Cascio Nick was predeceased by his par‐ents, granddaughter Molly Marie Cascio cousin Stephen Sclafani, brothersin-law Michael Seide George Keim Jr., Robert Keim, Raymond Keim John Keim, John Martin, Gary Hester, and sister-in-law Lucille Keim. Nick is sur‐vived and missed by his loving wife Louise Keim Cascio of 40 years; his chil‐dren, sons Scott Cascio (Ellen) and Michael Cascio (Brandi), stepson Monroe A Meyers, III; grandchil‐dren Blain, Brennan, Scott Sidney, Mia, Macie, Marlie, Mckenna Cascio and Joshua Rizzuto; greatgrandchildren Paisley, Grayson and Grant; sister Roselyn Cascio Seide; brothers John Cascio (Pamela), and Darrin Cas‐cio (Colleen); brother-inlaw Richard Keim (Anna); sisters-in-law Jean Keim Martin, Barbara Keim Hes‐ter Patricia Keim Beard (Ronnie), Carol Keim John‐son (Willie), Mary Lee Keim and Nancy Keim; an uncle and aunt, Frank and Flo‐rence Sclafani; nieces Jes‐sica Palmer (Charles), Jaime Mulloy (Kelly) and Alyssa Cascio; nephews Devin Schneider (Amanda) Daniel Schneider (Geo‐vanna); cousin Joel Sclafani and many greatnieces and great-nephews Nick also leaves behind his precious Allie. "We will al‐

Helen Lee Crotty passed away on February 13, 2025 after battling cancer. She was preceded in death by her husband Jay Adams; her parents Thelma and William Edward Crotty; sib‐lings Sister Mary Thelma, RSM (Eileen) Crotty; Wilma Crotty and Edward Crotty She is survived by her sib‐lings Betty Ann Gilberto (Santo), Pat Palmer, Willie Crotty Tim Crotty (Lila) Mary Noel Ignal (Ken), Susan Michlik (Chuck) and many nieces and nephews She was born February 18 1943, and grew up in the Irish Channel She retired in 2005 from United States Bankruptcy Court as secre‐tary to Judge Thomas Kingsmill for many years Funeral services will be held at St. Mary's Assump‐tion Church at 913 Josephine St on February 21, 2025 with visitation at 10:00 followed by Holy Mass at 11:00 Interment will be at Greenwood Cemetery In lieu of ﬂow‐ers donations may be made to St. Alphonsus Parish. Mothe Funeral Home is assisting the fam‐ily during this difﬁcult time. Family and friends are invited to share condo‐lences and memories by visiting: www mothefunera ls.com

Fontenot, Eugene 'Blue'

Eugene “Blue” Fontenot departed this earthly life on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at the age of 67 at Riverbend Nursing Rehabil‐itation Center in Belle Chase La He was born on October 22, 1957, in New Orleans, La. but grew up in Slidell, La. He was a car‐penter by profession and he was good at what he did He attended Salmen High School He is the fa‐ther of Travis Joseph Fontenot and Gabrielle Jean Fontenot-Wright (Terry). He was the son of the late Mildred Perryman Fontenot and Arthur “Boo Fontenot. He is the brother of Arthur “Red” Fontenot Jr., the late Denise Fontenot, late Ethaniel “Black” Fontenot and late Anthony “Boo” Fontenot. He was a man of resilience and stood on his word During his time on earth, he was a devoted Saints fan before and while ﬁght‐ing cancer. He enjoyed ﬁshing bowling and hang‐ing out with family He leaves to cherish his son and daughter, ex-wife Cheryl W Fontenot son-inlaw, a devoted cousin Wilbert Perry nephews, one great-niece, t Cheryl Sl Clarence Fon host of cous voted friend and friends attend the Fu at Majestic Mo Oretha Castle New Orleans Friday, Febru Visitation at 10 a.m. Ser‐vice at 11 a.m. Burial will be private. Due to COVID19, everyone attending is encouraged to wear masks

Richard Stanley Fowler entered into eternal rest on February 14, 2025 Beloved husband of the late Anne Caillier Fowler Father of Norma Veron (Garry). Grandfather of Tad Ordoyne (Jennifer) and Dade Veron (Erin Kelly) Great-grandfather of Sage Dahl (Grant), Elle Ordoyne Kailyn Saboe, Fiona, Chloe and Nora Kelly Son of the late Emmitt Fowler and Eva Langston Fowler Brother of Russell Fowler (Irene), David Fowler (late Mar‐garet), and the late Evon Chapman (late Herman) Amanda Paisley (late John), Louise Hobby (late Don), and Fred Fowler (Louise). Also survived by nieces and nephews. Age 95 years, a native of Paint Rock Valley, AL and a resi‐dent of Belle Chasse, LA In lieu of ﬂowers please make memorial donations to Heart of Hospice or Tun‐nel to Towers Foundation by visiting www t2t.org Relatives and Friends of the Family are invited to attend the Funeral Service in the Parlor of Mothe Fu‐neral Home, 2100 Westbank Expy, Harvey, LA on Friday, February 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM. Interment Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery Gretna, LA. Visitation will be held from 11 AM until service time The family in‐vites you to share your thoughts, fond memories and condolences online at www mothefunerals com.

Robert Andrew Germany, of Benton, Louisiana, passed away on Monday February 17thafter abrief illness. Robert "Bob" was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 5, 1937.

Internationally known in the plywood industry, he worked for Teco/Timberco for 45 years (1961-2005), developing plywood clientsinthe United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Finland,and China. Robert participated in the first seminar of its kind to establish plywood standardsinBrazil in 2000. He was amember of the Governor's task force for control of theFormosan

marry s sweetheart, Darla. His en‐trepreneurial spirit led him to establish a successful tractor and trailer repair business, reﬂecting his dedication and hard work Music was the heartbeat of Pat's life; he cherished every genre and was never one to shy away from a celebration. His love for family was boundless; he was a devoted father to his sons, Patrick Michael Hodge Jr. and Paul Gerald Hodge, and his daughter, Julia Marie Hodge His joy extended to his four adored grandchildren, Emmie, Porter, Tucker, and Kailynn Hodge, whom he loved immensely. “Big Pat's” affection didn't stop at his immediate family; he embraced all of his chil‐dren’s friends as if they were his own, showcasing his generous and inclusive spirit. Pat was preceded by his lifelong friend, Tracy Delise; his brother, David Hodge; and his loving par‐ents, Paul and Ina Hodge He is survived by his god‐father LeRoy Hartley; and his sisters, Sheila Scott and Sandra Contreras His memory will forever be cherished by those who knew him. Pat's presence was larger than life. He will be profoundly missed, but his spirit will forever res‐onate through the music the love of the game, and the warmth of family gath‐erings Please join us in celebrating Patrick M Hodge’s life on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at Green‐wood Funeral Home, 5200 Canal Boulevard, New Or‐leans, LA, 70124. Visitation will start at 11:00 a.m fol‐lowed by a Funeral Service at 1:00 p.m The burial will be at Greenwood Ceme‐tery. For condolences, visit www greenwoodfh com.

Kenner,

February

Cascio, Nicholas James, Cornelius Howard 'Connie'

Robert was adevoted husband to Marjean Ann Sabathier Germany for 52 years, devoted father to Robert Bryan Germany, Alan Louis Germany, and Karen AnnGermany Jakuback, son-in-law, John Francis Jakuback, loving and devoted grandfather to Colin Tyler Germany (Camille), Kathryn Ann Jakuback Burke (James), John Matthew Jakuback, and Nicholas Patrick Jakuback. Great-grandfather to Cyrus LeviGermany and awaiting the birthof great-granddaughter, Margaret Rose Burke. He was preceded in deathby his parents, Marion RandolphGermany and Helen Koch Germany; brothers, Marion Randolph Germany, Jr. and William EverettGermany, and sister, Shirley Germany McBride.

The family extends a heartfelt thank youtothe doctors and nurses of Willis Knighton Bossier ICU for their kindness and compassion.

"I have fought the good fight. Ihave finished the race. Ihave kept thefaith."

2Timothy 4:7

Visitation will be Thursday, February 20, 2025, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 315 Marshall Street, Shreveport,Louisiana, from 9:00 -11:00 AM, followed by Mass of the Resurrection at 11:00 AM. Burial to follow at RoseNeath Cemetery, 5185 Swan Lake Rd., Bossier City, Louisiana.

Hodge, Patrick Michael 'Pat'

Patrick Michael Hodge affectionately known as Pat passed away on Febru‐ary 8, 2025. Born on August 6 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico, but every bit of a New Orleans native, Pat was the epitome of a local hero, deeply rooted in his community and passionate about life. Pat graduated from Abramson High School in 1981, where he not only excelled on the football ﬁeld but also found the love of his life marrying his high school sweetheart Darla. His en‐trepreneurial spirit led him to establish a successful tractor and trailer repair business, reﬂecting his dedication and hard work. Music was the heartbeat of Pat's life; he cherished every genre and was never one to shy away from a celebration His love for family was boundless; he was a devoted father to his sons, Patrick Michael Hodge Jr and Paul Gerald Hodge, and his daughter, Julia Marie Hodge. His joy extended to his four adored grandchildren Emmie, Porter, Tucker, and Kailynn Hodge, whom he loved immensely “Big Pat's” affection didn't stop at his immediate family; he embraced all of his chil‐dren’s friends as if they were his own, showcasing his generous and inclusive spirit Pat was preceded by his lifelong friend Tracy Delise; his brother, David Hodge; and his loving par‐ents, Paul and Ina Hodge He is survived by his god‐father, LeRoy Hartley; and his sisters Sheila Scott and Sandra Contreras. His memory will forever be cherished by those who knew him Pat's presence was larger than life He will be profoundly missed, but his spirit will forever res‐onate through the music, the love of the game and the warmth of family gath‐erings. Please join us in celebrating Patrick M Hodge’s life on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at Green‐wood Funeral Home, 5200 Canal Boulevard New Or‐

Cornelius "Connie" Howard James passed away on February 15, 2025, at the age of 74 at Azalea Hospice in New Orleans, Louisiana He was born on May 1, 1950, in New Or‐leans to Carlton and Mar‐guerite James A proud Army Veteran, Connie served during the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970 Throughout his life, he worked various jobs but found his greatest passion in playing the drums He began drumming in Kenner with the late Ory Brooks and continued performing in many churches until ill‐ness forced him to stop in his sixties. Connie was pre‐deceased by his wife, Mary Evan James and his par‐ents He is survived by his brothers Carlton (Marilyn)

Richard John Johnson, Jr. born January 11, 1985 entered into eternal rest January 13, 2025 at the

of 40 years

Richard was the son of Anna

vant Ford and the late Richard John Johnson, Sr Ricky was the father of son Kedrin “Papa”, daughter Kayne “Emma” Everﬁeld and the guardian of Keonta Noonie” Everﬁeld. Ricky was baptized at the age of eight years old and his

vorite scripture was

23. Ricky leaves to cherish his fond memories his mother Anna Salvant Ford, brother Michael Abanda Jr., two sisters Regina Johnson and Wylece Ford Godchild Daijahna Ever‐ﬁeld, uncle Worcester Johnson, Jr. (Irma), two aunts Gisele Anderson (Henry) Shirlene Brown (William), three nieces and three nephews. Ricky is preceded in death by his father Richard John John‐son, Sr., sister Leslie Marie Johnson, paternal grand‐parents Mildred and Worcester Johnson, Sr. maternal grandparents Verna and Curtis Williams and Eddie Salvant, Sr., and uncle Eddie Salvant, III. We the family of Richard John Johnson, Jr. would like to express our gratitude for all acts of kindness we re‐ceived during this time of

Cornelius H James will be held at New Generation Fellowship, 1000 Clay St, Kenner, LA 70062 on Friday, February 21, 2025 at 11:00am Bishop E Craig Wilson ofﬁciating Inter‐ment will follow in Provi‐dence St Mark's Society Cemetery, 342 Providence Ln, River Ridge, LA 70123.

Fowler, Richard Stanley

E Jefferson

Johnson Jr., Richard John

Cascio,

Germany, Robert Andrew

vant Sr

4B ✦ Wednesday, February 19, 2025 ✦ nola.com

uncle Eddie Salvant, III. We the family of Richard John Johnson, Jr. would like to express our gratitude for all acts of kindness we re‐ceived during this time of bereavement Brakeman Hotel, Dauphine Orleans Hotel Bank Apartment Staff, Edna Karr C/O 2003, and Ms. Carolyn Mayo Bur‐ial service was held on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at McDonoghville Ceme‐tery in Gretna, La. Profes‐sional arrangements en‐trusted to Majestic Mortu‐ary Service, Inc (504) 5235872.

She grew up in the Seventh Ward and lived there for much of her adult life Jones lived on Annette Street, in a trio of shotgun houses in the 1900 block for several decades. In later years she was a resi‐dent of Flint Goodridge Apartments Uptown Jones was a skilled domestic worker, known for her love of dolls, dogs, leopard print and her ﬁerce indepen‐dence Jones is prede‐ceased by her only child, Calvin Jones Jr.; granddogs Doodles, Tutu and Pre‐cious; eight siblings; and her parents. She is sur‐vived by her brother, Sid‐ney Major (Jeralyn); two goddaughter/nieces, Dion M Harris and Dianne White Roy; and assorted nieces and nephews A one-hour memorial service will be held on Thursday, Feb 20 at Charbonnet-LabatGlapion Funeral Home in Tremé, promptly at noon Family friends, neighbors and associates are invited to assemble at 11 a.m.

William

Alifelong resident of New Orleans and not being able to stand another superbowl without the Saints, Billy departed the earth shortlybefore the game began. Born in New Orleans, Billy followed in the footsteps of his family and immediately took to music, particularly the drums and saxophone. He played in many oldies and country bands in the area. His love of music inspired his children and grandchildren to also pick up instruments themselves. He especially loved Ace Cannon, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino. As as young man, he was in the Army National Guard, and after being honorably discharged he followed in his father's footsteps and was apolice officer in St. Bernard. He then decided to try his hand at building things and worked construction for Target and Boh Brothers -helping build among many other things the Superdome, and helped rebuild after Katrina until his hard earned retirement. As a young man he enjoyed running the streets and chasing the girls -maybe abit too much if you ask his ex wives. He also loved to entertain and be the life of the party but Billywould also give the shirt off of his back to astranger to help them out, and that extended doubly to his family. He was asingle father to his son and would refer to himself as "Mr. Mom". Family was so important to him. He would call his children and grandchildren every week to speak to them to see how they are doing and how their week went. He was aselfless, loving father who was so proud of his family's accomplishments. He also loved collecting gadgets and gizmos. Any new technological marvel that came out,

and gizmos. Any newtechnological marvel thatcame out, he had to buy it from QVC or Amazon. Discovering the internet 15 years ago was the worst thing for his bank account. Billy was reunited in death with his parents Morris and ElsieHebert Kimble, brotherTimmy Pearsons, sisters Catherine Delatte,Marilou Gibbs Delatte,and Juanita James, and hisfaithful puggle Gabby. Left to treasure alifetime of precious memories aredaughters Pamela Kimble of Slidell, LA and DebraKimble of Convington, LA, sonBilly Kimble of Austin,TX, grandchildren Lance, Kristie, Alex, Amy,Billy, Nova, and great-grandchildren Kohl, Maddie,Abigail, Sofia, Caroline, and Jett. Acelebration of lifewill be held on Sunday, February 23rd at 3pm at the LuxuryHallat120 E Solidelle St, Chalmette, LA 70043.

Anne Pake Lowenburg born July 18, 1929 (Mobile, AL), passedaway February 13, 2025 (New Orleans). Daughter of Bertram and Jeanne Pake. Wifeofthe late RichardHill Lowenburg. Mother of Harry, Thomas, (Judith Lafitte), Ellen, James (Karen Mandell) and the late Margery Lowenburg Mother-in-law of Jane Mauldin. Grandmother of Benjamin (Megan), Elizabeth, Sara, Richard and Samuel Lowenburg. Great grandmother of Eli, David, Max and Ellis.A loving and courageous woman, dedicated to family, friends and community, and an active,generous supporterofcivicand social justice causes. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held on Wednesday, February 19 at 11am at Temple Sinai,followed by areception. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Planned Parenthood, New Orleans JCC(ACE program), Avodah (for New Orleans), Temple Sinai, or the charity of your choice.

Lusignan, Penny Lenore Funderburk

20 years. She enjoyed gar‐dening, cross stitch cook‐ing (oh, could she cook!), having lunch with high school friends and travel‐ing. She visited So Africa Mexico, Europe, Canada and most of the United States, usually traveling with one or both of her brothers and their wives In 2024, her dream of be‐coming a grandmother came to fruition with the birth of Robert Joseph Lusignan He was the apple of her eye as she became Cookie” to him Penny was a proud member of the Daughters of the Amer‐ican Revolution She is re‐membered by her son Lester Joseph Lusignan, wife, Jill and son Bobby; brother, Marc Funderburk and wife, Marilyn; brother Steven Funderburk and wife, Kathi Steven Lusig‐nan; goddaughter Katie Funderburk Werner; many cousins nieces and nephews and many, many friends The world has lost a precious soul. Penny’s Memorial Service will be held at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church 6336 Berkeley Dr., New Orleans, Saturday, February 22 at 11:00 a.m Memorials may be sent to Louisiana SPCA at give louisianaaspca org or Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America at aafa.org Family and friends may view and sign the online guest book at www mothefunerals com.

From 2000 – 2007 ter served in Pastoral Ministry in St. Joan of Arc parish, New Orleans and St. Fran‐cis Xavier in Baton Rouge. When Sister Elma returned to the motherhouse in 2009 and in the ensuing years, she was sacristan, assis‐tant in the Development Ofﬁce and Prayer Warrior Almost two years when she transitioned to Lafon Nursing Facility, sister con‐tinued her Prayer Ministry with the other sisters and residents Sister Elma will be missed for her engaging stories and her elegant manner Sister Elma Oliv‐era was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters: Daisy Olivera, Constance Locke and brothers: Nicholas and Alvin Olivera host of beloved nieces, nephews students, friends and Sisters of the Holy Family Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at the Chapel of the Sisters of the Holy Family on 6901 Chef Menteur Blvd NOLA 70126. Visitation be‐gins at 8:00 a.m. Wake ser‐vices begin at 9:15 a.m and Mass of Christian Bur‐ial at 10:00 a.m Interment at St Louis Cemetery # 2 Arrangements entrusted to Majestic Mortuary 504-5235872.

Dr. Patricia Ann(Patti

downtown library, volunteered for Friends, Inc., was named 2012 Volunteer of the Year, andwas a member of thechoir at Monte Sano Methodist Church in Huntsville. Since December 2014, she was a contributor to the WLRH Sundial Writers Corner. She also participated in classes at UAH in the Osher LifelongLearning Institute. In her80s, she self-published abook, Ramblings of aRenegade Retiree: Memoir of a Nobody.

It was Dr. Patrick's desire that those wishing to remember her would give to their favorite charity as well as lift an imaginary glass to laughter, fun, love, and all the joyousness they can find in this life. The family will host a celebration of her life on June 14, 2025 and has eulogized her here https://tiny url.com/thepegola because shelived too much life for just oneobituary. Moses and

Ricard, Edna Theresa Collins

Edna

Penny Lenore Funder‐burk Lusignan was born Dec 4, 1953 in Ozona TX and passed into the arms of Jesus on Feb 2, 2025 Penny grew up tagging be‐hind her two older broth‐ers, Marc and Steve, build‐ing forts riding bicycles and having every kind of adventure Her favorite times were the summers spent on the family farm in North Dakota. For the rest of her life, she, Marc and Steve would reminisce about those times and laugh about their child‐hood escapades whenever they were together Penny graduated from O. Perry Walker High School and at‐tended LSU and University of Holy Cross. Penny mar‐ried Stanley Lusignan in 1974 and they had one son, Lester Lusignan. She was a wonderful mother and never missed any of Lester’s baseball games or violin concerts. They al‐ways enjoyed traveling to‐gether to other cities to watch professional base‐ball games. Penny worked as a bookkeeper and was treasurer of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church for over 20 years. She enjoyed gar‐dening cross stitch cook‐ing (oh, could she cook!), having lunch with high school friends and travel‐ing. She visited So Africa Mexico, Europe, Canada an St wi br In co ca bi Lu of “C wa the Daughters of the Amer‐ican Revolution She is re‐membered by her son, Lester Joseph Lusignan, wife Jill and son Bobby; brother, Marc Funderburk and wife Marilyn; brother Steven Funderburk and wife Kathi, Steven Lusig‐nan; goddaughter Katie Funderburk Werner; many cousins, nieces and nephews and many many friends. The world has lost a precious soul Penny’s Memorial Service will be

Sister Elma Olivera, SSF, (nee Elma Louise Olivera) the daughter of the late Timothy Olivera and Rosiebell Monroe Olivera, entered eternal life on Sun‐day, February 16, 2025. She was born on September 15 1929, in Belize City, Belize, Central America She was 95 years old. Sister Elma entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family on September 10, 1947, made First Vows on August 15, 1950, and Final Vows on August 15, 1955. In preparation for and during her journey of 53 plus years in elementary and secondary education Sis‐ter Elma earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from the College of Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, a M Ed from USL (ULL) in Lafayette, Louisiana and M.R.E from Loyola Univer‐sity in New Orleans, Louisiana Sister began her teaching career at St Joan of Arc elementary in New Orleans in 1950 and re‐mained there until 1958 when she was transferred to Stann Creek Town (Dan‐griga) to teach at Austin High School From 19631967, Sister Elma attended College of Mount St Joseph in Ohio. From19671970, Sister served as prin‐cipal of Holy Family in Tulsa, Oklahoma She was in the exchange program in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for a year 1970-1971. From 1971-1974, Sister Elma re‐turned to the following schools in Louisiana: St Francis Xavier, Baton Rouge; St Mary’s Acad‐emy, New Orleans; and St Paul the Apostle New Or‐leans as principal. For three years after, Sister ministered as principal in Belize, Central America at Holy Angels Primary in the Stann Creek Valley and later taught at Stann Creek Ecumenical High School in Dangriga Sister returned to the United States and the classroom for the next 28 years, teaching at St Mary’s Academy New Or‐leans, Regina Caeli High, Compton, California, Our Lady of Victory elemen‐tary, Compton, Holy Rosary Institute, Lafayette LA Holy Ghost, Opelousas, LA Then she went back to Regina Caeli, Compton, re‐named Queen of Angels From 2000 – 2007 Sister served in Pastoral Ministry in St Joan of Arc parish, New Orleans and St Fran‐cis Xavier in Baton Rouge. When Sister Elma returned to the motherhouse in 2009

manner. Sister Elma Oliv‐era was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters: Daisy Olivera, Constance Locke and brothers: Nicholas and Alvin Olivera, host of beloved nieces, nephews, students, friends and Sisters of the Holy Family. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at the Chapel of the Sisters of the Holy Family on 6901 Chef Menteur Blvd. NOLA 70126. Visitation be‐‐

aka Peg)Patrick died on February 11, 2025 in Huntsville, AL peacefully at home surrounded by family after arecent illness. She was 85 years of age.

Dr. Patrick, anativeof Tupelo, MS, was the daughter of William Howard Patrick, Sr. and Jessie Rodgers Patrick who preceded her in death. Residing in NewOrleans starting in 1973, she was employed at the University of New Orleans (UNO) for 22 years before her retirement in 1996. In 2005, Dr. Patrick relocated to Huntsville, AL.

For 19 years, Dr. Patrick served in various administrative roles in theCollege of Business Administration at UNO including Interim Dean and Associate Dean for UndergraduateStudies and Administration, her last position there. She carried rank in the Department of Accounting where she taught full time for three years prior to going into administration.

Dr. Patrick received her business degrees, including her Ph. D., from the University of Mississippi in Oxford and did earlier undergraduatework at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS. She worked in the 12-countyheadquarters of theBoy Scoutsof America in north Mississippi for six years in the 1960s.

In her retirement years, Dr. Patrick volunteered at WRBH 88.3 FM Radio for the Blind in NewOrleans and also did interviews for their Public Affairs hour. She regularly attended summer sessions at Chautauqua Institutein Western New York. In Huntsville, Dr. Patrick started aShort Story Analysis for Amateurs group that met at the downtown library, volunteered for Friends, Inc., was named 2012 Volunteer of the Year, and was a member of the choir at Monte Sano Methodist Church in Huntsville. Since December 2014, she was a contributor to theWLRH Sundial Writers Corner. She also participated in classes at UAHinthe Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In her 80s, she self-published abook, Ramblings of aRenegade Retiree: Memoir of a Nobody.

Dr. Patrick leaves behind abrother, William H. Patrick, Jr., and sister-inlaw, Pamela Cowie Patrick, of Huntsville, AL;nieces Katy Patrick Bothwell and family (Kurt and children Alex, Bradley, Owen, and Inde) of Huntsville, AL LibbyPatrick and family (Jace Recio and children Bodhi and Luca) of Austin, TX, Maggie Patrick and family (Michael Lawton and children Lucky and Bea), of Huntsville; the multigenerational descendantsofher long time friend, Joye Wylie, who died in 1997; and various surviving cousins. It was Dr. Patrick's desire that those wishing to remember her would give to their favorite charityas well as lift an imaginary glass to laughter, fun, love, and all the joyousness they can find in this life. The family will host a celebration of her life on June 14, 2025 and has eulo-

Mary Marie Griffin Picot, age 75, passed away on Sunday, February 9, 2025 She was a graduate of L.E Rabouin and worked for over 30 years at Charity Hospital. She was pre‐ceded in death by her par‐ents, Dorothy Brooks and Lloyd Griffin Sr; grand‐mother, Marie Rousseau and 3 siblings, Austin Grif‐fin, Ernestine Thompson and Margie Ramos. Mary leaves to cherish her mem‐ories her husband, Michael Picot; 2 children, Frank (Tamerra) Picot and Renee (Terrence) Duncan; 7 grandkids, LinDale, Michael, Asia, Frank Jr, Jaylen, Marie Isaiah, 8 greatgrandkids, 11 siblings, Lloyd Jr. Lionel Sr (Max‐ine), Ethel, Edwin, Leory (Beverly), Arthur, Deborah (Kenneth), Morris Norris Kenya (Tramall) and Lardet; Godchild Farrah Moses and a host of other relatives and friends Rela‐tives and friends of the family are invited to attend her Mass of Christian Bur‐ial on Thursday, February

Gerry was agraduate of Holy Cross High School, LSUNO, and UNO, joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1969 as a Professional Engineer, Geotechnical Branch, and retiring in 2003 as Chief, Engineering Division,New Orleans District, receiving numerous performance, engineering, andexemplary service awards throughouthis career. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Gerry wasalso aconsummate Louisianasportsman and home gardener. He immensely enjoyed hunting and fishing throughouthis life with his cousin and friend, Donald Belsom, and kept aconstanteye on his persimmons, lest a varmint approach. Addressed throughout his life as either Sheldon, Shel, Mac,The Good Provider, Gerry, Pawpaw, or Papa Gerry, he was first and foremost known as a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, cousin, and continual friend to many. He lived a full life, and will be dearly missed. Gerry was preceded in death by his father, Gerard Sheldon Satterlee; his mother, Shirley Belsom Satterlee; his brother,

Jones, Ruby Major

Lowenburg, Anne Pake

Patrick, Dr. Patricia

Olivera SSF, Sister Elma

Picot, Mary Marie Grifﬁn

Satterlee, Gerard Sheldon 'Gerry'

Gerry Satterlee, alongtime resident of Chalmette, Louisiana, passed away suddenly on Saturday, February 15, 2025. Born and raised in St. Bernard agiggle with his favorite silly words Cheecheebaba, Nidjoo, or Rasputin.

Kimble,

time resident of Chalmette Louisiana, passed away suddenly on Saturday, February 15, 2025. Born and raised in St. Bernard Parish, Gerry spent his youth finding snakes in the woods, catching pigeons in the city, raising chickens at home, and sneaking any or all of the above onto a bus or into his school.

With atwinkle in his eyes, Gerry's telling of madcap life-stories entertained for hours. If not relaying tales of adate's hair wilted by the steam of a hundred pounds of boiled crawfish in the backseat of his car, or describing an evening mistakenly trapped in atrailer by junkyard dogs, he mightbe found quizzing his grandchildren about his latest secret password. He had a special place in his heart for his grandchildren, and could always elicit agiggle with his favorite silly words Cheecheebaba, Nidjoo, or Rasputin.

Gerry was agraduateof Holy Cross High School LSUNO, and UNO, joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1969 as a Professional Engineer, Geotechnical Branch, and retiring in 2003 as Chief, Engineering Division, New Orleans District, receiving numerous performance, engineering, and exemplary service awards throughout his career.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Gerry was also aconsummate Louisiana sportsman and home gardener. He immensely enjoyed hunting and fishing throughout his life with his cousin and friend, DonaldBelsom, and kept aconstant eye on his persimmons, lest a varmint approach.

Addressed throughout his life as either Sheldon, Shel, Mac, The Good Provider, Gerry, Pawpaw, or Papa Gerry, he was first and foremost known asa loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, cousin, and continual friend to many. He lived a full life, and will be dearly missed. Gerry was preceded in death by his father, Gerard Sheldon Satterlee; his mother, Shirley Belsom Satterlee; his brother, Timmy Satterlee; and his wife of 40 years, Patricia "Patti" Dewailly Satterlee

He is survived by his sisters, Adele Cook, Lydia Christen, and Agatha Borrouso; his daughters, Amy Satterlee Trahan (husband Joseph), Windy Satterlee Rachal(husband Christopher), and Melanie Becnel Broga (husband Jonathan); his grandchildren, Sophia and Sydney

death by his father, Gerard Sheldon Satterlee;his mother, Shirley Belsom Satterlee;his brother, Timmy Satterlee;and his wife of 40 years, Patricia "Patti" Dewailly Satterlee. He is survived by his sisters, Adele Cook, Lydia Christen, and Agatha Borrouso; his daughters, Amy Satterlee Trahan (husband Joseph), Windy Satterlee Rachal (husband Christopher), and Melanie Becnel Broga (husband Jonathan); his grandchildren, Sophia and Sydney Trahan, Nathan and Eleanor Rachal, andEllery, Haley and Avery Broga; and his companion of recent years, Eileen Farley. He is also survived by numerous loving sisters-inlaw, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, and extended family. The Satterlee Family wishes to thank Dr. Gerald Militello for his care,and extends aspecial thank you to the ICUstaff at Our Lady of the Lake of Baton Rouge for theirattentive kindness and dedication Relativesand friends are invited to the visitation at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home,5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. in New Orleans, on Friday, February 21, 2025 from 9:00AM until 11:00AM.The Funeral Mass will be celebrated in the chapel at 11:00AM. The interment will follow the Mass in Metairie Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please consider adonation in Gerry's memorytoThe American CancerSociety, www.cancer.org. To view and sign the online guest book,please visit lakelawnmetairie com

Gerry's memory to The American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org

To view and sign theonline guest book, please visit lakelawnmetairie.com

Schroeder Sr., Lloyd Frederick

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Lloyd Frederick Schroeder, Sr., aloving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather who left us at the age of 99. He is survived by the love of his life for over 78 years, Audrey Galjour Schroeder; four daughters, Pam Strickland (Steve), Susie Ferrand (Glenn), Peg Dubroca, WendyChatelain (Skip); and one son, Lloyd Frederick Schroeder II (Brenda). He was aproud grandfather to: Amy Strickland, Stephanie Strickland Bryant (Keith), Stephen Strickland,Jr. (Cathy), Brad Ferrand (Jonee'), Troy Schroeder (Olesia), Becky Schroeder Cowand (Brett), Scott Schroeder, Todd Dubroca, Chad Dubroca (Angie), Corey Day (Hannah), Blake Day (Susan) and Emily Chatelain. He was aloving great grandfather to: (Madeleine),

Joyce Simoneaux and a first cousin, Caryl Ann Verret,nieces and nephews, Marcia Deshotels, RJ Simoneaux and Stephen Galjour (Sherrie). He was preceded in death by his son, Eric Schroeder; granddaughter, MindyStrickland;great grandson, Andrew Strickland; brother, Herman Schroeder; and his

Chad Dubroca (Angie), Corey Day (Hannah), Blake Day (Susan) and Emily Chatelain. He was aloving great grandfather to: Taylor Bryant (Madeleine), Hannah Bryant Edwards (Parker), Stephen Strickland III, Genevieve Strickland, Benjamin Strickland, Siena Strickland, Lilette Ferrand, Ava Dubroca, Lila Dubroca, Sasha Schroeder and Madison Day and great great grandfather to Gianna Bryant. He is also survived by one sister, Joyce Simoneaux and a first cousin, Caryl Ann Verret,nieces and nephews, Marcia Deshotels, RJ Simoneaux and Stephen Galjour (Sherrie). He was preceded in death by his son, Eric Schroeder; granddaughter, MindyStrickland;great grandson, Andrew Strickland; brother, Herman Schroeder; and his lifelong best friend, Vincent Luccioni. Many thanks to Tammy who took care of him in Gonzales allowing him to stay in his home longer. A special thank you to Rick and Debbie Russell, his wonderful Gonzales neighbors for your love and kindness. To Lynn for your compassionate care, we thank you. To Lacey and Anthony, you were our guardian angels,

Certainly, we in Louisiana have known the vicissitudes of the oil and gas industry over the decades. Cycles of boom and bust, of millions made and millions lost, are so woven into our history that talk of the 1980s oil bust can still evoke nightmares. It was after that shock that the state began talking seriously about the need to diversify its energy economy But it is only recently that it has actually seen a window to make that happen in a signiﬁcant way

And that’s because of new industries that, like oil and gas, rely on technical expertise and the unique resources of our state. Renewable energy projects — wind and solar — have found fertile ground in the prairies and marshes of Louisiana. In 2023, Arizona-based First Solar began building a $1.1 billion facility to manufacture solar panels in New Iberia. Last year at the Port of New Orleans, Houma shipbuilder Edison Chouest christened the ﬁrst American-made service operations vehicle for offshore wind. And there are dozens of other potential investments around clean energy statewide: Factories for making batteries for electric vehicles and numerous carbon capture projects are on the drawing board.

The Biden administration’s Inﬂation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aimed to spur these budding industries, especially in places in Louisiana. However, all that promise has been thrown into doubt by the Trump administration’s recent moves to halt funding for clean energy projects.

We feel this is misguided for several reasons, but ﬁrst and foremost, because it is a selfinﬂicted wound.

Just as we did when the Biden administration arbitrarily decided to halt permitting for new liqueﬁed natural gas exports, we must question why the current administration would throw projects that are creating the jobs of the future in America into such uncertainty The price of oil, as we well know here, is affected by many factors, often in countries half a world away and out of our control. Our clean energy future depends only on our ability to invest and develop it.

Especially in Louisiana, where we are desperate for industries that support high-paying jobs to keep our young people here, this is a terrible blow We have embraced an “all-ofthe-above” energy strategy, and clean energy doesn’t threaten oil and gas jobs, which are dwindling anyway due to more efﬁcient processes. In fact, many petrochemical companies have invested in carbon capture projects for their own future.

While the funding freeze may be prompted by an urge to reduce waste in government or suspicion of anything related to climate change, and while there may be questions about the impact of some wind and solar projects, that’s no justiﬁcation for toying with Louisiana companies and jobs.

We hope our elected leaders will stand up and not let ideology kill innovation that could greatly beneﬁt our state. And we hope Louisiana oil and gas industry leaders will unite in supporting clean energy They most of all, should understand what it means when an industry’s fortunes change overnight

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’s city of residence The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

As a political scientist who focuses on international economics and politics, I must point out the tremendous damage that the federal administration’s actions toward the U.S. Agency for International Development will do to the U.S. and the global community Foreign aid has been an important tool of U.S. foreign policy since the Marshall Plan at the end of World War II. It was used to support democracies as they painfully rebuilt following the conflict and was an important check on the spread of alternative ideologies. Assistance would continue to be used as a policy tool through the Cold War for much the same purpose. In the years since, aid has been used to foster economic development, spread and support democracy and civil society and provide relief to those affected by conflict and disaster More recently, it has been an indispensable tool in opposing Chinese attempts to increase their influence through their Belt and Road Initiative. In short, at less

Regarding Will Sutton’s column Jan. 29, I ﬁnd it ironic to be upset with the renaming efforts for the Gulf of ??? and Mount ??? in Alaska.

Renaming has gone on forever In fact, I still have, in my keepsake scrapbook, schoolwork from my elementary years with maps of southeast Asia, eastern Europe and Africa where some country names are no longer Even in our United States, we have pre-1776 records deﬁning what’s presently a state as a British

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than 1% of the annual federal budget, on average, it provides tremendous value in burnishing the United States’ image globally and increasing its soft power Halting all aid programs and demonizing the agency is an unforced error that will have long-term ramifications. Individuals will suffer for lack of support and the country’s reputation will be significantly damaged, causing us to cede power to states like Russia and China, with whom we compete for global influence. The enormous downsides and arguably illegal impoundment of USAID funds should lead us to ask: Why is the administration sending us hurtling toward a constitutional crisis on the separation of powers and checks on the authority of the executive branch? Perhaps insight could be found by contemplating the following question: How would we describe these events if we saw them happening in another country?

DANIEL TIRONE Baton Rouge

colony More recently, geographical landmarks with names of Confederate generals have been changed, such as several army bases and even our own Lee Circle in New Orleans.

Although I am not a fan of changing Denali or the Gulf’s names, I am keenly aware changing is often used as a political tool to satisfy the political base of powerful leaders. At least the process does not raise taxes.

KENNETH MUSICK Baton Rouge

Banner should not have been hung at tragic location

In the past I’ve written about the Canal and Rampart Street intersection. This time is no different. Recently, I saw a huge banner wrapped around the empty lot’s perimeter where the tragic Hard Rock Hotel once stood. The banner in large letters and bright colors read, “New Orleans Super Bowl LIX.”

Because of the location of that banner instead of feeling jubilant and happy about the Super Bowl and what it means to New Orleans, I felt a sense of anger coupled with disrespect.

How could anyone in good conscience put a celebratory banner advertising and promoting an exciting occasion when lives were tragically lost at the banner’s site? It was a slap in the face to the families and especially to those whose remains remained in what was left of the compromised and collapsed structure. It’s a bad look to those of us who know and respect the history and its meaning to the intersection.

LINDA DOUGLAS New

Orleans

promises A Canadian longing to celebrate in N.O

Our governor, state and U.S. representatives and senators should take note: Your constituents have noticed that since Jan. 20 promises have not been kept. Egg prices have not come down. The war is still happening in Ukraine. There’s no sign of any bills to lower middle class taxes. Voters are watching what is happening in Washington. We see how many of our Louisiana elected ofﬁcials step in line with the cruel agenda, and how many of them are owned by billionaires. We will not be distracted by the ﬂurry of executive orders and lies that they are making American safe.

DENISE PADDOCK New Orleans

We have been planning a vacation to New Orleans for six years, but then COVID happened. Then the border from Canada was closed. Then we had a death in the family We ﬁnally rebooked (for the ninth time) a trip in May and paid for it on Dec. 31 Then the Bourbon Street attack happened. But nothing is going to stop us. Not a punishing exchange rate. Not a 97-year-old mother convinced that we are going to a war zone. Not a tenuous political situation. (No sir we do not want to be your 51st state.) Not anything. New Orleans is strong, and we are going to celebrate it! Finally

JANET POLE London, Ontario, Canada

Musk’s hand gesture taken out of context

A recent editorial cartoon poked fun at Elon Musk for his awkward attempt at a “from the heart” gesture at a President Donald Trump inauguration event. It is common knowledge that anyone remotely associated with Trump is fair game for your left-leaning editorialist, but to label Musk as a Nazi based on a split-second innocent hand gesture is going too far even by your publication’s standards. If a hand raised in the air is a deﬁnite sign that someone is a Nazi sympathizer, be prepared because the city of New Orleans is about to be invaded by a million Nazis begging for beads and trinkets from passing Mardi Gras ﬂoats!

DAVID PALMISANO Marrero

A chilling implication from JD Vance on rulings from judges

Anyone who doubts that President Donald Trump wants to rule like a strongman should pay attention to the chilling pronouncement made by Vice President JD Vance on a recent Sunday: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” Acting in its constitutional role, the federal judiciary has slowed the blitzkrieg launched by Trump and his ﬁeld marshal, billionaire Elon Musk, against the federal government and the law One of the latest roadblocks was erected in the early hours of last Saturday morning when U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ordered that Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service vandals be locked out of the Treasury Department’s vital payment systems, which are full of sensitive data.

The volatile Musk, predictably, raged on his social media platform X that Engelmayer was “a corrupt judge protecting corruption” and “needs to be impeached NOW!” But Vance’s post on X, though calmer in tone, was far more menacing — because it fundamentally challenges the Constitution’s system of checks and balances.

I need to quote Vance in full: “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

There are two possibilities here. Vance might just be blowing off steam. Or he might be presaging an attempt by the administration to take the unthinkable step of defying federal court orders which would create an existential constitutional crisis. Federal judges have temporarily blocked several of Trump’s sweeping executive orders and stalled Musk’s pillaging of some federal agencies, pending further judicial consideration. The president has been stopped from

unilaterally ending birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment; freezing up to $3 trillion in domestic spending that was authorized by Congress, to which the Constitution gives the power of the purse; purging the U.S. Agency for International Development and immediately putting its 2,200 employees on leave; imposing an impossibly tight deadline for a questionable “deferred resignation” offer to most civilian federal workers; and enacting other radical measures. These rulings have been made by judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents — including by Trump himself during his first term. They are fulfilling their duty according to the Constitution and the landmarkof-all-landmarks Supreme Court ruling Marbury v. Madison, which in 1803 established the principle of judicial review When a federal judge issues a ruling the president does not like, the president can appeal to a higher court Ultimately the dispute might reach the Supreme Court, which makes a decision by which all parties, including the president, must then abide. Vance, who is a graduate of Yale Law School, obviously knows all of this He also knows that the examples he cites are specious. No, federal judges do not review a general’s battle plans — but five civilian judges do sit as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which has appellate jurisdiction for the military court system. No, federal

judges do not usurp the attorney general’s discretion — but Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee, did rule that former attorney general Merrick Garland acted improperly when he appointed Jack Smith to prosecute the classiﬁed documents case against Trump.

It is safe to say that every president has been frustrated by some decision made by some federal judge. If Trump is more exasperated than most “No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It’s a disgrace,” he said of Engelmayer’s ruling — that is because he is claiming a vast and un-American expansion of executive power

The Founders expected each branch of government to defend its prerogatives.

The Republican majorities in the House and Senate have shown no willingness to challenge Trump as he ignores laws and withholds expenditures mandated by Congress. The judiciary, by contrast, is doing its job. But judges have no way to enforce their decisions. Implicit in Vance’s words is a threat to simply ignore rulings about matters the administration believes judges “aren’t allowed to control.”

Amid his vice-presidential duties, Vance somehow ﬁnds the time to ﬁght culture-war battles on X, often hurling juvenile insults. For example, he responded to a critique from Rory Stewart, a British academic and former cabinet secretary who has taught at Harvard University and is now a professor at Yale, by posting that Stewart “has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130.” In another spat, Vance told Rep Ro Khanna, D-California, to “grow up” and called him “whiny.”

Actually, Vance’s post about disobeying judicial review is the very deﬁnition of “whiny.” But it also sounds like a grave threat to the absolute, inviolable principle that a president is not a king.

Eugene Robinson is on X, @Eugene_ Robinson.

Keep an eye on sheriff’s race amid eventful political season

It’s hard to beat an incumbent sheriff. But it’s not impossible.

The campaign for Orleans Parish sheriff this year will feature multiple candidates. Though some familiar names will be on the ballot, consider it a proxy battle among prominent political sponsors, including U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, District Attorney Jason Williams and Voters Organized to Educate leader Norris Henderson. Political strategist Ike Spears and former White House adviser Cedric Richmond and others are likely to weigh in, too as they all measure their political bandwidths.

Will Sutton

In the last sheriff’s campaign, Carter endorsed longtime incumbent Marlin Gusman and Williams endorsed progressive challenger Susan Hutson. Henderson went in hard for Hutson, likely pushing her over the top. Gusman nearly won outright in the primary Falling short, he faced Hutson in a runoff and Hutson rocked traditional political thinking and won overwhelmingly The campaign to succeed Mayor LaToya Cantrell will garner the most attention and attract some big money this fall, but watch the sheriff’s race. Hutson announced a reelection bid Jan. 18. A prominent challenger made her ofﬁcial pitch Tuesday. Hutson’s vanquished opponent is considering a comeback. A Carter ally is expected to make a run ofﬁcial after Mardi Gras.

Once a sheriff gets in ofﬁce, it can be tough to get the sheriff out. Just in the last few decades, Orleans has had a 30-year sheriff, Charles Foti, and a 17-year sheriff, Gusman. Hutson has ﬁlled the balance of the last 50 years with a term that expires in 2026. She’s asking voters to give her another four-year term to continue what she calls a more humane approach to jailing people and a community-responsive leadership.

“Culture change takes a while,” she told me “We are not done. A full three terms would be good.” Not everyone sees it that way So, Hutson has challengers and people seeking challengers. Williams hired former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison as a consultant serving as a liaison, the agency where he worked for 30 years, including four years as chief. He then led the Baltimore Police Department as chief. Some like the idea of Sheriff Harrison.

Nah, not interested, Harrison told them. He’s been helping police departments in Memphis, Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, and other agencies. “I’m happy consulting,” he told me.

Progressives have the presidency they have long desired, but a president they abhor James Madison warned them: “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm” (Federalist No. 10)

Theodore Roosevelt’s “stewardship” theory of the presidency was that presidents may do anything they are not explicitly forbidden to do. Woodrow Wilson considered the separation of powers a dangerous anachronism impeding enlightened presidents (e.g., him). He postulated a presidential duty of “interpretation”: discovering what the masses would want if they were sensible, like him. Wilson’s former assistant secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, used radio to enable the presidency to mold opinion. Lyndon B. Johnson, who became an FDR-loyalist in Congress in 1937, commanded a large and obedient congressional majority (1965-1966) as no subsequent president has.

Progressives’ indiscriminate hysteria is helping Trump. Does the Constitution or democracy or something require the U.S. Agency for International Development to remain forever as it always has been — ill-focused and inadequately supervised?

The ﬁrst sentence of the ﬁrst paragraph of the lead story in a recent Sunday Washington Post reported Elon Musk’s “vision” of a “dramatically smaller” government. If so, of his many “visions,” his one about making humanity an “interplanetary species” (Mars, here we come) is not his least realistic. Four years from now, the government will be larger than it is today Here is today’s government, about which Musk evidently knows as little as he knows about politics: Thirty-six percent of the budget is Social Security and Medicare, which Trump says are untouchable. Unless the population instantly (and miraculously) stops aging, spending on both programs will grow a lot in four years.

Donald Trump’s rampant (for the moment) presidency is an institutional consequence of progressivism. Progressives, who spent recent years trying to delegitimize the Supreme Court and other federal courts, suddenly understand that courts stand between Trump and the fulﬁllment of his least lawful whims. Including his disobeying Congress’s unfortunate, but detailed and lawful, ban of TikTok. Politico recently published a wellreported story that partially refuted its headline, which was: “As Trump steamrolls Washington, courts ﬂex their power to slow him down.” Steamrollers are not what they used to be, given that at least 10 federal judges have impeded him regarding birthright citizenship spending freezes, the dismissal of federal workers and the structure of some agencies.

Twelve percent of the budget funds defense, which Trump wants to increase. Fourteen percent is for debt service, which now costs more than defense. It is not optional and will be higher in 2029 because the debt will be at least $7 trillion larger than it now is.

Democrats should more carefully pick the hills they are willing to die on.

The country is heartily sick of illegal racial discrimination and unconstitutional compelled speech that is the diversity, equity and inclusion industry (which, per a Goldwater Institute report, costs $1.8 billion in education alone every four years). Corporate America adopted DEI programs pellmell following the moral panic after the murder of George Floyd. Corporations are jettisoning DEI not to placate Trump but to avoid the nuisance and

litigation DEI entails. (A theory: Woke college graduates, with degrees in gender studies or similar intellectual culde-sacs, dislike business but acquire MBAs so they can join corporate human resources departments and continue grinding their ideological axes.) Considerable employment churning is a constant and generally wholesome consequence of economic dynamism. On average, more than 1.5 million private sector workers are laid off per month. Few Americans are sad that eternal job security is not an ironclad entitlement for 3 million federal civilian employees. And about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, without which America prospered during its ﬁrst 235 years: Is it really wrong to favor extinction of this anti-constitutional contraption that can “declare,” without congressional guidance, what business practices are “abusive”? Unlike any entity created by Congress since 1789, the CFPB is untethered from oversight: Its funding, determined unilaterally by its director, comes not from Congress but from the Federal Reserve.

There is a perennial progressive lament that the Constitution’s framers — with their annoying separation of powers and a pesky because independent, judiciary — made swift, radical zigs and zags by government too hard. Too bad.

A prediction: On Jan. 20, 2029, whomever is inaugurated on the West Front of Congress’s building will inherit a presidency more circumscribed than today’s. Courts, especially the one across First Street NE from the Capitol, will have done their duty regarding presidential overreaching. And Congress, provoked by the same, will have begun to ﬂex its atrophied muscles. Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

Williams also hired former interim Police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork. After a three-decade NOPD career, she retired. She has been the DA’s director of forensics and intelligence since the spring, and on Tuesday announced that she’s running for sheriff to provide “proven leadership” for an “agency that has lost its way.” Woodfork’s convinced that she can do better than Hutson, especially remembering her two years (1989-1991) as a sheriff’s deputy in courtrooms, on jail tiers and serving subpoenas.

New Orleans Second City Court Constable Edwin Shorty agrees with Woodfork that OPSO can be better He disagrees who can do better In a recent interview, Shorty expressed disgust with Hutson’s leadership. Like Woodfork, Shorty once worked as a sheriff’s deputy, roughly from 1995-1999, while attending Southern University at New Orleans then the Southern University Law Center As a business owner and a public official running an office responsible for Algiers evictions, he’d like to see remote bookings and more OPSO deputies backing up NOPD officers. He’d retire Hutson’s use of the term “residents” for criminals who belong in jail. Hutson points to significant improvements since taking over from a Gusman administration that refused to help with a transition. She said she and her team have given deputies raises, training and radios they should’ve had long ago. But Gusman is considering a comeback, arguing that Hutson has been “abysmal.” Look at her big promise to end the federal consent decree, he said. She hasn’t. Hutson counters that she’s made progress. She told me OPSO is on track to reach compliance as she addresses nine consent areas.

A serious sheriff’s campaign operation needs at least $500,000 to compete. Hutson, Shorty and Woodfork have been raising money In the last election, Hutson said she raised about $800,000. She’d like to have $1 million this time Carter, Williams, Henderson and other behindthe-scenes players haven’t announced sheriff’s race endorsements. But I can’t imagine Shorty running without Carter’s support, Woodfork running without Williams’ support or Hutson running without Henderson’s support. Hutson, Woodfork and Gusman have high name recognition. Shorty’s willing to self-ﬁnance to build name recognition. With so many storylines to follow, the sheriff’s race might be as thrilling as the mayor’s race, if not more.

Email Will Sutton at wsutton@theadvocate.com.

Eugene Robinson

George Will

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Vice President JD Vance

New Orleans Forecast

IN ZION THEY TRUST

Pelicans remain committed to build the franchise around enigmatic star

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

If it was up to Zion Williamson, he’d be playing in back-toback games these days.

And he would play more than 281/2 minutes in a game, which he hasn’t done since returning from a lengthy hamstring injury this season.

But that decision doesn’t belong to Williamson

It belongs to Daniel Bove, the director of performance and sports science for the Pelicans who sits courtside each game with an iPad that monitors Williamson’s load management every second he’s on the ﬂoor

“He can tell when Zion’s load is spiking,” said David Grifﬁn, the Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations. “And he can tell when he needs to be shut down. And we’ve got the ability to really monitor his progress, and he’s showing incredible progress daily in terms of how high his ﬂoor is rising.” Is Williamson getting closer

to playing more minutes?

“I feel like I should deﬁnitely get up to 30 minutes post AllStar break,” Williamson said

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

There would be no massive upset at

Alex Box Stadium this time around.

On Tuesday Southern’s ﬁrst matchup against LSU since its stunning victory at The Box a season ago, the Tigers crushed the Jaguars 13-1 in a game shortened to seven innings because of the mercy rule.

An eight-run fourth inning allowed LSU to separate from Southern.

“I don’t know anybody that prepares to lose,” Southern coach Chris Crenshaw said. “I thought we had a good chance to come in here and play a good game.”

With LSU ahead 3-0, Utah Valley State transfer Daniel Dickinson started the scoring in the big fourth inning with a two-run single with the bases loaded, chasing Auburn transfer Chris Stanfield and freshman Derek Curiel home.

ä Pelicans at Mavericks. 7:30 P.M. FRIDAy GSN

last week. “But like I said, whatever the team decides to do, I support it. We are going to work smart.”

Working smart, as coach Willie Green has pointed out time and time again since Williamson returned, means looking more at the “big picture.” For the Pelicans, that big picture includes Williamson. Not just this year, but for years ahead.

Despite all the frustration that has come since Williamson’s New Orleans arrival in 2019 — frustration for the front office, fan base and even Williamson himself — he will remain the cornerstone Griffin builds around. Understandably, the risk of seeing a player of Williamson’s caliber flourish elsewhere is one the

ä See ZION, page 5C

BY GUERRY SMITH Contributing writer

Tulane volunteer assistant coach

R.J. Hunter knows all about gamewinning shots, so he started running on the court almost before Asher Woods’ last-second 3-pointer went through the net on Saturday at Devlin Fieldhouse.

Hunter , th e 31-year-old son of Green Wave coach

Ron Hunter famously drained a 30-footer with 2.6 seconds left to give No. 14 seed Georgia State a 57-56 victory against No. 3 seed Baylor in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

On Saturday, well into his ﬁrst year as a volunteer assistant, he reached Woods before anyone else after he swished a tiebreaking 3 against Rice as the buzzer sounded.

R.J Hunter

“I didn’t have ﬂashbacks, but I obviously was extremely happy for my guy,” R.J. Hunter said. “I’ve got to work on my coaching reaction. I went right to him Once he shot it, it looked good. It’s my rookie year coaching, so I have to work on keeping it cool and calm.”

Regardless of his inexperience, Ronald Jordan Hunter has had a positive effect in the ﬁrst year of his new gig after ending a nine-year career as a professional basketball player Tulane (14-11, 8-4 American Athletic Conference), which hosts surging East Carolina (15-11, 7-6) on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., ESPN+), can move closer to the double bye it is seeking in next month’s league tournament and further away from the preseason coaches’ projection of a tie for 11th place.

If the Green Wave wins Wednesday — no automatic task against an opponent that is 6-2 since mid-January it will nearly double last season’s conference win total of ﬁve with ﬁve games left.

R.J. Hunter, a late ﬁrst-round draft pick of the Boston Celtics in 2015, logged 36 games as a rookie but only nine more for three different teams in the next three years, spending most of his time in the G League. His journey eventually took him to Turkey for two seasons, Australia

Junior Ethan Frey then blasted a three-run home run over the leftﬁeld stands, giving the Tigers an 8-0 lead. A run-scoring triple from sophomore Steven Milam and a two-run single from Curiel later in the fourth handed the Tigers an 11-0 advantage.

“I saw something that I don’t know that I’ve ever seen before,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “We had 18 quality at-bats in a row at one point. And regardless of score, competition (or) day, in baseball, that’s really

ä LSU at Nicholls State. 6:30 P.M.WEDNESDAy, ESPN+

hard to do.”

All eight runs were charged to Southern freshman right-handed reliever Caiden Stewart. Redshirt junior right-hander Jeremiah Newman replaced Stewart and surrendered one run and one hit in 12/3 innings. “I think we had one pitcher go out and have a 1-2-3 inning one time today,” Crenshaw said. “So when you go out there and you do that one time, that means a lot of pressure on the defense.” Starting on the mound for Southern was sophomore left-hander Genesis Prosper He wasn’t ﬂawless, but he kept the Jaguars (2-2) within striking distance, surrendering only three runs on eight hits in three innings of work. In

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER Pelicans forward Zion Williamson dunks against the Sacramento Kings on Feb 12 at the Smoothie King Center Williamson has been limited

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MATTHEW HINTON

forward

jokes with executive

president of basketball operations David Griffin during

Saints add more offensive coaches

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

The New Orleans Saints nearly have assembled their entire offensive coaching staff, and the ﬁnal major piece could be in place soon.

On Tuesday, the Saints added running backs coach Joel Thomas — who had previously spent nearly a decade with the organization in the same role — as well as quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien.

New Orleans is also closing in on a deal with Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, according to a Josina Anderson report, with the two sides spending the day ﬁnalizing an agreement for Nussmeier to become the offensive coordinator on Kellen Moore’s initial staff. He has been tied to Moore throughout the process, and if he does land in New Orleans, Nussmeier will have worked under Moore with each of his last four teams.

Nussmeier would be the final major piece of Moore’s offensive staff, joining Thomas, Tolzien, and recent hires in wide receivers coach Keith Williams (a holdover from last year’s staff), tight ends coach Chase Haslett and offensive line coach Brendan Nugent

All but Williams and Thomas had worked under Moore previously Though New Orleans has ﬁlled all of its positional assistant roles, the team still likely will make several other hires for lower level assis-

Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus responds to questions during a news conference at the team’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday.

PHOTO By TONy GUTIERREZ

tant and quality control positions.

The Saints also have been tied to Philadelphia assistant offensive line coach T.J. Paganetti, according to a NewOrleans.football report, to serve as a run-game coordinator Though Thomas never has worked with Moore previously, he has plenty of recent connections to the organization Thomas was with the franchise as the running backs coach from 2015-23. He left

New Orleans last year to join the New York Giants. Thomas is highly regarded around the NFL and recently served as an offensive coordinator during the Senior Bowl. He has a strong relationship with several players on the current roster, including Alvin Kamara. Tolzien was a coaching assistant under Moore with the Cowboys from 2020-22.

Eberﬂus returns with Cowboys

BY SCHUYLER DIXON

AP pro football writer

FRISCO, Texas New Dallas defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus never really stopped to consider a year away from coaching after getting ﬁred by the Chicago Bears. Not that his wife, Kelly, would have let him.

“She said she wanted me to go to work now,” Eberﬂus said Tuesday in his ﬁrst meeting with reporters since getting hired by the Cowboys. “And I did, too.”

The 57-year-old Eberﬂus is back where his career took off.

He had a seven-year stint on the Dallas defensive staff — from 2011-17 — that led to the defensive coordinator’s job with Indianapolis.

Four years later, Eberflus took over the Bears, getting fired 12 games into his third season, the day after his poor clock management in the final seconds cost Chicago in a sixth consecutive loss. He was 14-32 with Chicago.

“I was excited after a couple of days, a couple of weeks, taking that break,” Eberﬂus said “I was excited about looking at different opportunities, and this was the best opportunity that I felt was really cool for me to come back to Dallas. I have a lot of familiar faces here, starting from the top all the way to everybody in the building.”

A first-time NFL head coach with the Bears, Eberﬂus is now under someone in the same situation, with longtime assistant Brian Schottenheimer taking over for Mike McCarthy

The Cowboys and McCarthy parted ways after ﬁve more seasons of Dallas not getting as far

as an NFC championship game.

The drought goes all the way back to the 1995 season, when the storied franchise won its ﬁfth Super Bowl.

Eberﬂus lived it. The Dallas defense couldn’t get a stop late in a divisional playoff loss at Green Bay during the 2014 season, and gave up an improbable — and decisive — third-down completion to Aaron Rodgers in the ﬁnal seconds of another divisional loss to the Packers, this time at home, when the Cowboys were the NFC’s top seed in 2016. Now he’ll try to help Schottenheimer end it.

“The first couple meetings I had with him, I said, ‘I’m here for you,’” Eberﬂus said. “I want to really just do a good job of bouncing ideas off of (him), experiences that I had and just working together to be able to utilize me. Because I do have the experience of being a head coach for him and to make his job easier.”

Eberflus has four assistants from last season’s Chicago staff in defensive passing game coordinator Andre Curtis, linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi, secondary/ cornerbacks coach David Overstreet II and defensive line assistant Bryan Bing Darian Thompson, a former Dallas player is the only holdover on the defensive staff.

He is helping Overstreet in the secondary after working with linebackers his ﬁrst two seasons.

The other newcomers are defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton and young assistants J.J. Clark and Tanzel Smart.

The only returning member of the offensive staff is Lunda Wells, who will coach tight ends after

having that role for all ﬁve of McCarthy’s seasons.

“It’s good,” Wells said. “Just make sure you get the names right.”

Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator the past two seasons with McCarthy calling plays, and the arrangement will be the same with Schottenheimer’s replacement, Klayton Adams.

The offensive line coach for the Arizona Cardinals the past two seasons, Adams was on the Colts’ staff with Eberflus. His first priority in his first year as a coordinator is helping improve one of the league’s worst rushing offenses

The question of whether he’d eventually like to be a play-caller can come later

“At the end of the day, our job when we’re putting things on the call sheet is to be problem-solvers,” Adams said. “That’s the part that I’m really looking forward to focusing on. It’s also a leadership position within a great organization.” Wells and pass game specialist Ken Dorsey are the most experienced coaches on the offensive staff. Dorsey has had a rough couple of years, getting ﬁred midseason as offensive coordinator in Buffalo in 2023 and again after this past season from the same job in Cleveland.

“We’ve got to be able to win football games, and when you don’t then there’s always those possibilities of things happening,” Dorsey said. “In life, you’re going to get knocked down. You’re going to get punched in the gut. It’s how you get back up and keep swinging, keep ﬁghting.” Eberflus can relate and now they’re on a staff together

Chio wins SEC freshman gymnast award for 5th time

Maybe they should just call it the Kailin Chio award.

The LSU gymnast was named Southeastern Conference freshman of the week Tuesday for the third straight week and ﬁfth time in seven weeks overall.

Chio helped lead the now No. 3 Tigers to Friday’s 198.050-197.675 victory over No. 1 Oklahoma, winning the all-around title with a career-high 39.725.

The Henderson, Nevada, native posted a score of 9.90 or better in every rotation, including a careerhigh 9.95 on floor sharing first place in that event.

Chio leads the nation on vault with an NQS average of 9.930, is eighth on beam (9.895) and ninth in all-around (39.435).

LSU is on the road at 6 p.m. Friday against No. 9 Kentucky

NFL rescinds Mixon’s $25,000 fine after appeal

Dallas elevated Tolzien to its quarterbacks coach job in 2023 — taking the spot formerly held by Nussmeier who joined Moore’s staff with the Los Angeles Chargers. Tolzien had spent his entire NFL coaching career with the Cowboys to this point. Like Moore, Tolzien is a former player, appearing in 10 games as a quarterback with the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts.

Panthers bring back QB Dalton

MIKE KAYE

The Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Andy Dalton isn’t going anywhere.

The Carolina Panthers announced Tuesday that the team reached an agreement with the veteran quarterback on a new two-year contract. Dalton was set to test free agency on March 12 prior to the agreement.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the deal is worth a base value of $8 million. Per the report Dalton is guaranteed $6 million at signing with a max earning potential of $10 million.

The well-traveled signal-caller spent the past two seasons in Charlotte, mostly serving as a sounding board and backup to starting QB Bryce Young. While Young was brieﬂy benched for Dalton last season, a minor car accident which injured Dalton’s right thumb on his throwing hand — essentially ended Dalton’s run as the Panthers’ starting quarterback after just ﬁve games (1-4 record).

But Dalton, despite the unusual 2024 season, has retained his strong relationship with both Young and head coach Dave Canales. Following the season ﬁnale against the Atlanta Falcons, Dalton, 37, made it clear that he would like to stay with Carolina, as his family has enjoyed the area and he liked the direction the franchise was headed.

Dalton has thrown for 1,350 passing yards, nine touchdowns and six interceptions in nine games (six starts) for the Panthers over the past two years. Entering his 15th season, Dalton has thrown for 39,500 yards, 253 touchdowns and 150 interceptions in his career

While he spent his first nine seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, Dalton has also played for the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. Besides the Bengals, the Panthers are the only team that Dalton has played for longer than one season. With Dalton coming back, the Panthers have a three-man QB depth chart under contract. Along with Young and Dalton, second-year QB Jack Plummer is also on the roster

The NFL has rescinded a $25,000 fine Houston’s Joe Mixon received for comments about officiating in the Texans’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round of the playoffs after an appeal by the running back. Mixon was given the fine for his comments following the 23-14 loss where Houston’s defense was penalized twice for hits on quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Appeals officer Chris Palmer said in a letter to Mixon, which was obtained by ESPN.com, that during the hearing process on Jan. 30 he found that Mixon “did not necessarily publicly criticize the officials.” Palmer said in his letter to Mixon that the “integrity of the game and its officials is the responsibility of everyone involved in the NFL.”

Ravens’ Cleveland arrested on a DUI charge

ATLANTA NFL player Ben Cleveland of the Baltimore Ravens has been charged with drunken driving in Georgia on Tuesday Cleveland, who previously played for the University of Georgia, was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy near Milledgeville, Georgia, last Wednesday, the incident report shows.

After Cleveland was stopped, he told the deputy he had been at a local country club and had consumed about three to four beers, but none in the previous two hours. He agreed to a blood alcohol test and registered 0.178, which is over the legal limit in Georgia, the report states. Cleveland was charged with driving under the inﬂuence of alcohol, and failing to stay in his lane.

Turner agrees to $6 million, 1-year contract with Cubs MESA, Ariz. — Justin Turner has agreed to a $6 million, one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, giving the team additional inﬁeld depth. Turner can earn an additional $2.5 million in bonuses. The addition of Turner would give the team some security at third base should Matt Shaw need more seasoning in the minors. The 23-year-old Shaw has been slowed by a left oblique issue in spring training.

The 40-year-old Turner also could back up Michael Busch at ﬁrst base and go into the lineup at designated hitter Turner played for Toronto and Seattle last year batting .259 with 11 homers, 55 RBIs and a .354 on-base percentage in 139 games.

Djokovic loses in straight sets to Berrettini in Doha DOHA,Qatar Novak Djokovic was upset by Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Tuesday at the Qatar Open in the Serb’s ﬁrst match since exiting the Australian Open with a hamstring injury though he didn’t have “any pain or discomfort.”

The 37-year-old Djokovic, ranked No. 7, lost to the Italian for the ﬁrst time in ﬁve career matches and will have to wait to join Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) as the only players in the ATP Tour’s 100-win club.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion reached the

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara runs a drill as assistant coach Joel Thomas looks on during a minicamp practice at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on June 13, 2023.

Hubbard leads Bulldogs to victory over Aggies

BY PAUL JONES Associated Press

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Josh Hubbard

scored 25 points, reserve Claudell Harris Jr added 12 of his 15 points in the second half, and No. 21 Mississippi State beat No. 7 Texas

A&M 70-54 on Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs (19-7, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) began the second half with a 14-3 run to grab control en route to their ﬁrst win this season over a top-10 foe. Although Mississippi State was favored by 21/2 points according to BetMGM Sportsbook, its fans nonetheless celebrated by storming the court.

Zhuric Phelps scored 13 points for Texas A&M (20-6, 9-4). Wade Taylor IV and C.J Wilcher each had 11 points, but Wilcher was scoreless after halftime.

The Bulldogs trailed 31-30 at the break. Hubbard opened the second-half scoring with a 3-pointer and Mississippi State never trailed again. Free-throw shooting helped the Bulldogs stay ahead. Hubbard was 10 of 11 from the line and the team ﬁnished 17 of 20.

The Aggies suffered their biggest loss in league play this season They had won four of their ﬁrst six SEC road games.

The Bulldogs had three previous home games against top-10 opponents in the rugged SEC losses to Kentucky, Alabama and Florida

The Aggies got within 46-42 midway through the second half, but Hubbard found Harris for a 3-pointer with 6:24 left that started a 14-5 run for the Bulldogs.

Although Texas A&M had 38 rebounds to Mississippi State’s 31, the Aggies were hurt by 19 turnovers and shot just 35.8% from the ﬁeld.

NO. 14 MICHIGAN STATE 75, NO. 13 PUR-

DUE 66: In East Lansing, Michigan, Jase Richardson had 12 points and Frankie Fidler scored 11, leading No. 14 Michigan State to a win over No. 13 Purdue on Tuesday night.

The Spartans (21-5, 12-3 Big Ten) have won three of four to pull within a half-game of conferenceleading and 12th-ranked Michigan, heading into the rivals’ matchup on Friday night at Crisler Center

The Boilermakers led by seven midway through the ﬁrst half and the Spartans went on a surge to take a 33-31 lead at halftime.

Michigan State stayed in control in the second half and sealed the win by ﬁnishing 4 for 4 from the ﬁeld NO 2 FLORIDA 85, OKLAHOMA 63: In Gainesville, Florida, Walter Clay-

With no deal

ton Jr scored 18 points, Will Richard added 14 and No 2 Florida steamrolled Oklahoma on Tuesday night for its ﬁfth consecutive victory

Alijah Martin chipped in 14 points off the bench for the Gators (23-3, 10-3 Southeastern Conference), who tied a season-low with six turnovers and improved to 13-1 at home. Florida played its second game without starting forward Alex Condon and backup Sam Alexis. Both wore protective boots, although Condon participated in the shootaround without one.

Micah Handlogten, in his second game back since breaking his left leg last March, ﬁnished with two points, ﬁve rebounds, two assists and a block.

in place with Blue Jays, Guerrero eyes free agency

BY CHRIS NELSEN Associated Press

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Vladimir Guerrero

Jr plans to become a free agent after the season following the passing of his deadline Tuesday to reach a long-term agreement with the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Listen, I want to be here. I want to be a Blue Jay for the rest of my career,” the four-time All-Star ﬁrst baseman said through translator Hector Lebron at Blue Jays camp.

“But it’s free agency It’s business. I’m going to have to listen to 29 more teams and they’re going to have to compete for that.”

Guerrero has a $28.5 million, one-year contract and will be perhaps the top free agent on the market one year after Juan Soto signed a record $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets.

Guerrero, who turns 26 next month, said his last communication with the team came around 10:30 p.m. Monday and the two sides never came close to a deal.

“I have my number all along,” Guerrero said. “I changed it a little bit. I tried, but it still didn’t happen.”

“I know my value,” he added. “I didn’t see the front ofﬁce moving

to my number It wasn’t the number I was looking for Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”

Guerrero had said during the offseason he would cut off negotiations when he reported for spring training

“I don’t want, especially my teammates, to go through any distractions about that,” Guerrero said “I’m here today and I’m ready I want to win a lot of games and I want to make it to the playoffs. That’s all that’s in my head right now.”

Guerrero hit .323 last season with a .940 OPS, 30 homers and 103 RBIs.

“We’re disappointed we couldn’t get a deal done,” Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said. “When you go into a negotiation, each side has rational for a number In this case, we couldn’t align on a common number There’s no such thing as close or not close. There’s done or not done.”

Shapiro maintained the team will not entertain trade offers for Guerrero.

“Our only focus now is winning with Vladdy,” he said.

Guerrero came up through the Toronto system, made his big league debut in 2019 and has a .288

average, 863 OPS, 160 homers and 507 RBs.

“I’ll do anything, everything I have, to stay here with the Blue Jays,” Guerrero said. “I love it here. I want to be here. I’m not thinking about free agency I won’t be thinking about free agency at all during the season.”

Shapiro, team chairman Edward Rogers and Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Tony Stafﬁeri were involved in the negotiations. General manager Ross Atkins thinks the team made fair proposals.

“The offers we made for Vlad would have been record-setting and made him one of the highestpaid players in the game,” Atkins said “We were, in our view, very aggressive.”

Guerrero’s father Vladimir Guerrero, is a Hall of Famer and nine-time All-Star who was voted the 2004 AL MVP Toronto players hope their teammate’s contract situation doesn’t become a constant focus during the season.

“We know, without a doubt, he’s a Blue Jay this year,” pitcher Kevin Gausman said. “I’m sure it could be a distraction, but I’m not too worried about that. I think Vladdy is focused on going out and playing baseball.”

LeMahieu hopes to regain form in 2025

BY RONALD BLUM AP baseball writer

TAMPA, Fla. — DJ LeMahieu reacted to his poor play the way many New York Yankees fans did.

“Deﬁnitely lost a lot of sleep,” he said Tuesday

A three-time All-Star infielder LeMahieu hasn’t had a fully healthy season since 2020. With his 37th birthday approaching in July, the former LSU player hopes to again be the dominant hitter he once was.

“For a majority of my career, I would pretty much play unless my leg was cut off,” he said. “I’d just kind of strap it on every day and played. It’s just the last few years, just bumps, bruises, this, that. I had the foot fracture. Stuff that I could kind of play through in the past. It just kind of it escalates and it gets it compounds.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone is shifting Jazz Chisholm Jr to second following the departure of Gleyber Torres to Detroit as a free agent. LeMahieu will get a chance for playing time at third.

“The hit tool is one of those things that ages usually pretty well,” Boone said. “With health, I do believe there’s reason to believe that there’s a role to be played there. It it an everyday role? Is it some kind of platoon role? His body will kind of dictate that.”

LeMahieu left Colorado as a free agent to sign a $24 million, two-year contract with the Yankees in January 2019 and hit a career-high .364 with a 1.011 OPS in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season to win his second batting title. He again became a free agent and the Yankees retained him with a $90 million, six-year contract. He dropped to a 268 average the following year and missed the postseason because of a sports hernia that required core muscle

repair surgery on Oct. 12. LeMahieu rebounded to hit .272 in the ﬁrst half of 2022, but had a cortisone injection to his right big toe at the All-Star break and slumped to .228 in the second half. The turning point was during a weekend series at Fenway Park on Aug. 12 and 13, 2022.

“I remember we’re in Boston watching his at-bats just change overnight,” Boone said. “It just really zapped him.”

Since then, LeMahieu is hitting .226 with 17 homers 73 RBIs in 224 games with a .637 OPS.

“It’s tough to be a guy that the team can’t rely on at times,” he said.

LeMahieu missed the 2022 playoffs because of the injury, eventually diagnosed as a broken sesamoid bone in his right big toe that led to ligament damage in his second toe. LeMahieu hit .220 in the ﬁrst half of 2023 and rose to .273 in the second. Then he broke his right foot when he fouled off a pitch during a spring training game last March 16, delaying his season debut until May 28. In a season cut short on Sept. 3 by right hip impingement LeMahieu batted a career-low .204 with two homers and 26 RBIs in 228 plate appearances. He understands there are people who doubt he can bounce back.

“That’s fine,” he said. “Plenty of times in my career people haven’t always been the most confident in me. I’ll obviously use that as motivation but at the same time I’ve got enough to worry about. I know if I can just be myself and continue to work to be that, that’ll be fine.”

He took a two-month break from hitting until he reported to the Yankees’ minor league complex in mid-January, trying to give his body time to heal.

“I felt good,” he said, “But it’s easy to feel good in January.”

AP FILE PHOTO By FRANK FRANKLIN II

DJ LeMahieu of the New york yankees runs the bases after hitting a home run against the Baltimore Orioles in New york on Aug. 13, 2019.

AP PHOTO By ROGELIO V. SOLIS

Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard shoots a 3-pointer while Texas A&M forward Henry Coleman attempts to block it during the second half on Tuesday in Starkville, Miss.

THE VARSITY ZONE

All-around effort nets Newman state title

Greenies win championship after falling in semis past two years

BY MIKE GEGENHEIMER

Contributing writer

Alex Dulitz didn’t understand how hard it was to win a state championship when Newman won in 2022. A freshman that year, Dulitz told Greenies coach Tooraj Badie at the time that they would win titles the next three years. Turns out, it was a lot harder than it looked. Newman lost in the semiﬁnals in 2023 and 2024.

But with each disappointment Dulitz and the Greenies learned what it took to reach the top. They turned frustration into motivation and determination. They built team chemistry from top to bottom.

Three years later that conﬁdent freshman is a senior captain and on Tuesday night No. 1 Newman again climbed to the pinnacle of Division IV boys soccer, earning the school’s 11th state championship with a 3-1 victory over No. 2 Ascension Episcopal.

“We didn’t realize how much this game and this team meant to us until our sophomore and junior years when we were so close to getting here,” Dulitz said. “Just to bookend it with a win our senior year these are my closest friends. I couldn’t think of a better way to end it.”

It’s hard to say which part of Newman’s game was the most

impressive during its undefeated season (23-0-1): the offense that scored 138 goals or the defense that allowed only nine.

Either way both sides of the ball were on full display in Hammond.

Ascension Episcopal started the game aggressive. Badie said Newman was outplayed the ﬁrst 20 minutes despite having several more chances on goal.

But Newman ﬁnally settled down in the 28th minute with its first goal. Senior striker Cole Spady took a ball right up the middle of the defense before finding the back of the net

That set the stage for the rest of the night

“After that ﬁrst goal it was a lot better,” Spady said. “The nerves were high. We were playing backand-forth soccer But we started playing our game and dialed in after that.”

That was only the start of Spady’s night, though. He once again found the net a few minutes later after a miscommunication on a goal kick gave him a practically uncontested shot on goal in the 36th minute. Spady came close to completing the hat trick with several more dangerous shots and two goals called back for offside, but it wasn’t to be. With 44 goals on the season, including 10 in the postseason, Spady was named Most Outstanding Player Amar Walia ﬁnished scoring for Newman in the 49th minute when he skimmed a shot into the far post

But Badie was most impressed with Newman’s steadfast defense limiting the Blue Gators to seven shots all night Ascension Episcopal’s only goal came in ﬁrst half stoppage time on a penalty kick by Hayes Trotter

“We know Cole can finish. It’s just a matter of time,” Badie said. “But it’s our defense that I’m proud of — not that I’m not also proud of Cole.”

Battle-tested Shaw sharp

victory over Landry

Wembanyama likes hitting the books during the season

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

Let’s start with this: He brought a book to the All-Star Game

As if the NBA needed more proof that San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama is different, the latest example came Sunday in a locker-room video posted by the league. Wembanyama was getting settled in before the games and Denver’s Nikola Jokic was puzzled by what the Spurs star had with him.

“You really brought a book?” Jokic asked.

“I read before every game,” Wembanyama said.

Even at All-Star weekend, Wembanyama didn’t change who he is. He got himself and Spurs teammate Chris Paul disqualified from the skills competition at AllStar Saturday night after finding what he thought was a loophole in the rules and could increase the chance of winning. He brought the book on Sunday He was visibly frustrated when his team lost the All-Star tournament final.

San Antonio knows, and has known, that Wembanyama is the face of the Spurs. The rest of the league has probably ﬁgured out that he’s one of the faces of the league — the game globally, too — and is well on his way to superduper-superstardom, if he’s not there already LeBron James had nothing but rave reviews for Wembanyama when the 7-foot-3 French center — who just turned 21 last month — was coming into the league. James heaps the Wemby praise even higher now

“I’ve seen one quote that he says that nobody better call him past 9 o’clock at night because he’s either reading or he’s asleep I think that’s super cool. I think that’s super dope,” the Los Angeles Lakers’ star said.

“That lets you know where his mind frame is at, where he is at intellectually, and I think he’s been great, obviously, for the franchise with the Spurs.

“But he’s going to be great for our league for so many years to come.”

Wembanyama was the unanimous rookie of the year last season. He’s the favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, to be defensive player of the year this season. He is almost certainly going to make the All-NBA team. He will likely get MVP votes.

All for good reason.

His scoring average is up. Rebounds per game, up. Shooting percentages, up. He’s already taken 403 3-pointers and blocked 176 shots this season — no player in NBA history has ever ﬁnished a season with those numbers, and Wemby did it this year by the AllStar break. He’s averaging 24.3

points, 11 rebounds, 3.8 blocks and 3.7 assists; the only other player to ﬁnish a season averaging all that was Kareem AbdulJabbar in 1975-76.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry was asked what he marvels at when he watches Wembanyama “Everything he does,” Curry said. “Everything.”

The Spurs have been through some things this season.

Gregg Popovich, the franchise patriarch and someone Wembanyama calls the best leader he’s ever known, had a stroke in November and coached only ﬁve games before needing to be replaced by assistant Mitch Johnson — who, by all accounts, has done an admirable job.

The travel has been brutal, even by San Antonio standards: the Spurs went to New York for a few days over Christmas, spent a week in France for the NBA Paris Games, were in Los Angeles when wildﬁres were ravaging that city and are now dealing with the annual rodeo road trip that displaces them for much of February

Paul says the team has had chances, pointing to how 10 of San Antonio’s 29 losses have been by ﬁve points or fewer “I think we can really put something together after the break,” Paul said.

With Wembanyama, all things are possible and the Spurs are most certainly in the play-in tournament mix. San Antonio which added De’Aaron Fox around the trade deadline — is 3 1/2 games out of the ﬁnal play-in spot with 30 games left to play It’s not out of reach.

“Gaining a bit of conﬁdence because we have such changes in the season,” Wembanyama said, when asked what the Spurs need to do for the stretch run. “Also defense, I think, is the key Going back to the status of one of the best defenses is the key.”

BY DARRELL WILLIAMS Contributing writer

When L.B. Landry, with its fast guards, got off to a quick 7-1 lead against Shaw, it appeared it would be a difﬁcult game at the Buccaneers’ gym for a highly touted opponent. However Shaw has quick guards, too They also have two good big players. Just as important, the Eagles appear determined, their eyes on a state championship that has been elusive

In Shaw’s 67-52 nondistrict victory at Landry on Monday night, the Eagles showed poise along with the attributes listed above. And that in large part has coach Wesley Laurendine optimistic as the regular season heads into the ﬁnal stretch. In Monday’s win against a fellow West Bank foe, 6-foot-6 sophomore Tristan Naquin scored 16 points, Christian Clair had 15, Kalil Anogboro 12 and Allen Red Shaw 11. Playoff pairings will be announced next week. Monday’s win was the 14th in a row against in-state schools for Shaw (22-2), the No. 1 team in the LHSAA’s Division II select power rankings.

Landry (21-11) is ranked No. 12.

“I think the key to winning this game was that we were calm,” Laurendine said. “We fell behind at the start, and we came right back. We were up by about 16 points, and we remained calm.”

Laurendine said the reason is that this year’s team is battletested. After seeing Shaw lose in the state semiﬁnals the past three years against Scotlandville three years ago in the Division I playoffs and the past two seasons against Madison Prep, Laurendine sought to face the best opponents possible

“We went out and got games against Madison Prep, Jackson (Miss.) Academy Zachary Hannan twice, Catholic Baton Rouge,” he said. “Last year, we weren’t battle-tested, so we went out and got the games we needed to get to become prepared for that.”

Ryheem Jackson led Landry with 18 points. Darryl Adams scored 13 and Kristopher Grifﬁn had 10.

After falling behind early against the Buccaneers, Adams scored seven points in the first quarter to get Shaw going. Naquin got going by scoring the next 10

points for a 19-11 Eagles lead after the ﬁrst quarter The Eagles led 35-23 at halftime, then got its fast break going in the second half.

“(Shaw) did a great job of going from defense to offense, a great job of getting into their fast break,” Landry coach Rob Wallace said. “The transition points caused separation in the game.”

Kobe Butler, a 6-foot-7 senior who transferred from Newman to Shaw as a sophomore, said this team believes it shouldn’t lose. Shaw won its first game of the season against Madison Prep, a win Laurendine said was like getting the proverbial monkey off his team’s back Another game helped harden the Eagles.

“We beat Catholic-Baton Rouge in a tournament, and that told us we were the real deal,” Butler said. “Catholic was ranked higher than us at the time. We came into that game knowing we had to play as hard as we could and as well as we could, and we had to win that game.”

Laurendine said his team has jelled as the season as progressed, but he’d like to see an extra pass here and there.

By The Associated Press

BOSTON The general manager of the United States team in the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament said he would welcome a visit from President Donald Trump to the championship game between the U.S. and Canada on Thursday night.

Bill Guerin, who played 18 years in the NHL for eight teams, said on Fox News that Trump’s presence would give a boost to the rivalry between the North American hockey powers. He credited Trump’s tariff threats and talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state for ratcheting up the intensity in their fight-filled matchup in the preliminary round.

“We would love it if President Trump was in attendance,” Guerin said in the interview broadcast on Monday “We have a room full of proud American players and coaches and staff. Listen, we’re just trying to represent our country the best way we can.”

The tournament marks the return of the top hockey stars to international play after sitting out the past two Olympics. The United States beat Canada

3-1 on Saturday in a game that began with three ﬁghts in the ﬁrst nine seconds. The quality of play, intensity of emotions and geopolitical backdrop have drawn comparisons to the Americans’ “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

“I think there was a little bit of a political ﬂair to it. It’s just the time that we’re in,” Guerin said. “If you let it get the better of you, then you’re in trouble. But I do think the players used it as inspiration.” Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has attended the Super Bowl and NASCAR’s Daytona 500. Canada forward Brandon Hagel said Tuesday his team didn’t need any extra motivation, referencing American players having discussed over group chats their plan to start the previous game with ﬁghts.

“I think we’re out there playing for the ﬂag, not the cameras That’s a part of Canada that we have in there. We don’t need to initiate anything. We don’t have any group chats going on,” Hagel said. “We’re going out

and

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Victor Wembanyama gestures after sinking a basket during Game 1 of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Newman forward Cole Spady, left, tracks the ball while battling Ascension Episcopal left back John Parker

Rholdon in the Division IV championship at the LHSAA state tournament on

at Strawberry Stadium in Hammond. Newman defeated

3-1 to win the state title.

LSU

Continued from page 1C

run-scoring single to Curiel and committed a balk that granted another runner to come home. Prosper also gave up a sacriﬁce ﬂy in the third inning that allowed Dickinson to score.

“I respect Chris a lot,” said Johnson, referring to Crenshaw.

“I think he recruits well. They played well in Houston this weekend. (I) watched all three games, and I expect them to have a good year.”

The LSU starter on Tuesday was left-handed junior-college transfer Conner Ware. In his ﬁrst appearance for the Tigers (4-0), he walked only one batter and didn’t allow a hit in three innings.

Wofford right-handed pitching transfer Zac Cowan relieved Ware and allowed an unearned run and two hits in three innings

Redshirt junior right-hander Kade Woods closed out the win in the seventh inning.

ON DECK

WHO: LSU (4-0) at Nicholls State (2-2) WHEN: 6:30 p.m., Wednesday WHERE: Ray Didier Field, Thibodaux

ONLINE: ESPN+ RADIO: WDGL-FM, 98.1 (Baton Rouge); WWL-AM, 870 (New Orleans); KLWBFM, 103.7 (Lafayette)

RANKINGS: LSU is No. 3 by D1Baseball; Nicholls is unranked

PROBABLE STARTERS: LSU — TBA; Nicholls State TBA

PREGAME UPDATES: theadvocate.com/lsu ON X: @KokiRiley WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Junior right-hander Gavin Guidry, after getting stretched out into a multiinning relief role over the offseason, is a logical candidate to start. If he’s on the bump, he’ll face a Nicholls team led by ﬁrst-year coach Brent Haring, LSU’s director of operations last year Koki Riley

HUNTER

Continued from page 1C

for another and back to the G League in 2023-24.

Originally planning to play another four to ﬁve years, he realized he enjoyed helping his father at Tulane more than continuing his career, so he decided to retire.

“I’m like the player-coach liaison,” he said. “I’m fresh off playing, so I’m more of a player than a coach just off habits and instincts, so I can relate to these guys. Even if they’re not hearing me out, they make me felt heard and have been an unbelievable group to coach.”

the NBA, it brings a sense of what can I learn from him?” Woods said. “For him to come back and put that knowledge on us is tremendous, from the little small things about footwork to just the details of the game. He challenges us to be the best version of ourselves and tells us the truth. As a competitor, you respect that.”

R.J. has not decided whether coaching is his long-term future, preferring to live in the moment as he moves on from his playing career, but he adds he cannot see himself doing anything else as long as his father is at Tulane.

The elder Hunter sees it as a win-win situation, mentioning how much time R.J. works with players on their shooting before using his trademark humor when talking about their relationship.

ZION

Continued from page 1C

Pelicans aren’t willing to take.

“If you take just his body of work this year, what he’s done for us when he’s been healthy, he’s taking steps every day and he’s grown by leaps and bounds both on the court and off,” Grifﬁn said. “I think the player he is now is better than he’s ever been. He’s playing at a historic level in terms of efﬁciency per minute.”

Williamson is averaging 24.4 points per game this season. His rebounding numbers (7.4 per game) are the highest of his career His assists (ﬁve per game) are tied for the best of his career And his presence on defense has bene better than ever But it’s the numbers in the “games played” column that often leave the fans either scratching or shaking their heads.

Williamson has played in just 18 of the 55 games this season. Even more discouraging for season-ticket holders is that he’s played just six times in the Smoothie King Center

“I don’t believe he’ll always have those types of restrictions,” Griffin said.

“I do think that a great deal is tied to his past injury history and the nature of his speciﬁc injury Hamstrings are the most prevalent in terms of recurrence of the injury It’s one of the most dangerous injuries to have, particularly when you’re anatomically built the way Z is.” Williamson’s injuries, along with all the others

“They were ahead of all of the hitters (in the count) the majority of the time, so we never got anybody on base,” Crenshaw said. “We couldn’t create offense.”

Four Tigers had multihit days, including Curiel, Frey, Stanﬁeld and Milam. Curiel and Frey had three hits apiece, and Frey’s home run was his first at LSU.

“Pitching is all about variability,” Ware said. “Adding, subtracting, kind of moving the ball where you want it to.” Southern didn’t record its ﬁrst hit until the sixth inning. The Jaguars’ only run came in that frame, after a passed ball allowed freshman Beny Bikar to score from third base. Bikar and Cardell Thibodaux had Southern’s only hits — a single and a double, respectively, in the sixth.

“It’s kind of everything you dream of, especially as an in-state kid,” Frey said regarding his home run. “It’s never been in my mind, really So it’s not something I’ve been trying to chase or anything but it feels pretty good.”

LSU plays its first road game of the year on Wednesday at Nicholls State.

First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. and the game can be streamed on ESPN+.

Southern faces Jackson State in its first game at the Andre Dawson Classic in Vero Beach, Florida, on Friday First pitch is set for

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KyLE PHILLIPS Pelicans forward Zion Williamson looks to shoot over Thunder forward Kenrich Williams on Feb 10 in Oklahoma City

the team has endured, have made for a trying season. If you add up all the missed time by players because of injuries and illnesses this season, it equates to 230 missed games It’s the reason the Pelicans are just 1342 at the All-Star break and at the bottom of the Western Conference standings heading into Friday’s road game against the Dallas Mavericks. It’s a complete 180 from last season when the Pelicans were headed to 49 wins, the second-most in franchise history The results have changed And so has the locker room.

Brandon Ingram, the other half of the Pelicans’ 1-2 punch, was traded to the Toronto Raptors at the trade deadline. Williamson and Ingram both arrived in New Orleans in 2019 Williamson as the ﬁrst overall pick and Ingram as part of the Anthony Davis trade.

“Walking in the locker room and not seeing his number was deﬁnitely different,” Williamson said. “It’s different, and one of those small reminders

about the reality of the league. I’m in Year 6 and there’s nobody player-wise (from when I arrived) that’s here anymore It’s a reminder that things have changed.”

Williamson and Ingram were supposed to be the duo to lead the Pelicans to new heights. But they rarely played together More times than not, when one was healthy, the other one wasn’t.

“I think there were certainly diminishing returns to having your two best players make the amount of money they do when they only played 34% of their games together,” Griffin said. “I think that was challenging and that wasn’t all on Zion.”

Some of Williamson’s absences were all on him, though. Particularly the one in January when he was suspended one game by the team for being late for a team ﬂight. But even that moment is one Grifﬁn said Williamson has learned from.

“People mature at different rates in the league,”

11 a.m.

Email Koki Riley at Koki. Riley@theadvocate.com.

He certainly has the chops to command attention. A two-time Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year at Georgia State under his dad, he holds the school record for single-season scoring, career scoring, 3-pointers, free throws made and freethrow percentage He has accomplished what everyone else on the team hopes they can do, and his biggest success came under their excitable, one-of-a-kind coach.

“My dad’s nuts, and I played for him and know him,” he said. “I know his intention. He wants you to be great, and he almost pushes you to perfection. I’m just trying to be the middle man.”

Woods, who has scored 58 points in his past three games, has welcomed R.J.’s presence as a coach.

“Any time you get around a guy who’s been around

Ron Hunter tore his Achilles tendon as he reacted to Georgia State’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship in 2015, then fell off the stool he was using to move around when R.J. sank the dagger against Baylor ﬁve days later A lecture on the proper way to celebrate Woods’ big bucket did not carry much weight.

“It’s great whenever you get to work with your son and see his happiness,” he said. “But I tried to explain to him when a coach sees a buzzer beater, there’s a cool way of doing it. He looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, yours was real cool falling off a stool.’ So it’s do what dad says, not what he does.”

in the Sun Belt Conference championship game before entering the NCAA

Ron Hunter is now the Tulane basketball

spending this season as a volunteer

“If you take just his body of work this year, what he’s done for us when he’s been healthy, he’s taking steps every day and he’s grown by leaps and bounds both on the court and off. I think the player he is now is better than he’s ever been. He’s playing at a historic level in terms of efﬁciency per minute.”

DAVID GRIFFIN, Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations

Griffin said. “Sometimethat maturity looks like a brushfire and sometimes it looks like a forest fire.

“I think he’s reaching forest-ﬁre status now. And that’s exciting.” Williamson looks to be in

the best shape of his life, despite the iPad limiting his minutes. It’s shown up especially on the defensive end.

“As Zion continues to seize the opportunity he has now to be more focal in what we’re doing, I think a

lot will reveal itself,” Grifﬁn said. “What does he need when he’s this version of Zion Williamson? Because this is the best version he’s ever been in terms of his ability to platy both sides of the ball.

“We’ll learn a lot about what he needs with him, and our fans will certainly get to see it.

“And I’m excited to see the growth he’s made. He’s really earned the opportunity to seize the moment, and I think he will.”

Email Rod Walker at rwalker@theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTOS By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU center fielder Chris Stanfield, left, greets left fielder Derek Curiel at home plate after both scored in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded single by Daniel Dickinson against Southern on Tuesday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Former Georgia State basketball coach Ron Hunter, right, talks with his son and team member, R.J Hunter, on March 16, 2015, in Atlanta. Ron Hunter suffered a torn Achilles at the end of the team’s win

Tournament.

coach, while R.J is

assistant coach.

Southern right ﬁelder Kameron Byrd makes a running catch

Larson still trying to ﬁgure out Daytona

BY JENNA FRYER AP auto racing writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Owen Lar-

son called it when he said his dad wouldn’t win the Daytona 500 because “he probably needs to try really hard because he’s not good at superspeedway racing.”

The 10-year-old was right in his assessment. Kyle Larson can win just about anywhere in any type of car But when it comes to Daytona and Talladega, NASCAR’s 2021 Cup Series champion is a disaster.

Larson dropped to 0 for 22 at Daytona International Speedway — it’s 0 for 42 in the Cup Series once Talladega Superspeedway’s stats are included — when he ﬁnished 20th in Sunday night’s Daytona 500.

The Associated Press was embedded with the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 team with a front row seat for his 201 frustrating laps in which Larson complained over his radio that “I make all the wrong moves. Any move I make is the wrong one.” His exacerbation only mounted when all three of his Hendrick teammates led laps, William Byron won for a second consecutive year, and Byron and Alex Bowman ﬁnished inside the top-six. Chase Elliott was 15th.

Jeff Gordon, the vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports and a

three-time Daytona 500 winner, didn’t dispute Larson’s notion of not being able to properly navigate the pack racing typical of Daytona International Speedway

I noticed that,” he said of Larson’s declaration he couldn’t make a single right move. “I can be hard on him because I love Kyle and I think he’s amazing.”

Larson is amazing and opened 2025 with a slew of victories, including in sprint cars in Australia, the Chili Bowl and at Volusia Speedway in the lead-up to the Daytona 500.

But, just as his oldest son predicted, he was a non-factor at Daytona despite every motivational speech crew chief Cliff Daniels tried on his driver The two have been paired since Larson moved to Hendrick and the No. 5 team in 2021 and won 10 races and the Cup title.

Larson has won 23 Cup races since his move to Hendrick, and for that, the leadership at Hendrick is able to give him a pass on his struggles at superspeedways.

“Gosh, the guy is not perfect,”

Gordon said, but added that his struggles have now become bigger than just not being able to feel conﬁdent at Daytona or Talladega.

“I think now I’m starting to see it’s getting in his head. I’ve had a few conversations with him, and like, ‘Man, just go for it, just forget about it, don’t try to even over-

he dropped to 0 for 12 in “The Great American Race.”

Larson ﬁgures his career résumés would be ﬁne without a Daytona 500 victory He’s won every other crown jewel: NASCAR’s AllStar race in 2019, 2021 and 2023; the 2021 Coca-Cola 600; the 2023 Southern 500; and the 2024 Brickyard 400.

“Like, I’m not going to lose sleep if I don’t ever win this race, but I still want to win the race and have that ring and that trophy and be a part of the names that have won it,” Larson said.

“But again, I think there’s a lot else, a lot more that goes into winning and a lot of luck. It’s not a big deal.”

Gordon said Larson and Daniels have a lot of soul-searching to do to make success on superspeedways happen.

think it,’ ” Gordon said.

“I don’t know what advice to give him other than all I told him today is ‘Just be Kyle Larson. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Don’t look at what somebody else is doing that’s having success. Just go out there and execute, and the other things will turn around and come your way eventually.’

” Byron was quick to point out that not winning the season-opening race means little for Larson in the grand scheme of things. The next month includes Cup races at Phoenix, where Larson won the race to

clinch the 2021 championship, and Las Vegas, where two of his three career wins have come in the past three visits to the desert track.

“Wait until we get to Vegas, and he’ll just be ripping,” Byron said. Larson’s difﬁculties at Daytona could be traced to his 2013 Xﬁnity Series debut at the track. He sailed into the fence and destroyed his car in a frightening crash for a driver who had skyrocketed from sprint cars to the top level of racing in the United States

Although he won the Xﬁnity race in 2018, he’s never really been a factor in the Daytona 500, where

NEW ORLEANS AREA GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYOFF REPORT

SCOREBOARD

(6), Kazakhstan, def. Moyuka Uchijima, Japan, 6-3, 6-2. Linda Noskova, Czechia, def. Diana Shnaider (11), Russia, 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-3. Jasmine Paolini (4), Italy, def. Eva Lys, Germany, 6-2, 7-5. Jessica Pegula (5), United States, def. Liudmila Samsonova, Russia, 6-0, 6-4. Iga Swiatek (2), Poland, def. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 6-0, 6-2. Dayana Yastremska, Ukraine, def. Anastasia Potapova, Russia, 6-2, 6-3. Soﬁa Kenin, United States, def. Marta Kostyuk, Ukraine, 5-7, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5). McCartney Kessler, United States, def. Coco Gauff (3), United States, 6-4, 7-5. Aryna Sabalenka (1), Belarus, def. Veronika Kudermetova, Russia, 6-3, 6-4. Karolina Muchova (14), Czechia, def. Emma Raducanu, Britain, 7-6 (6), 6-4. Clara Tauson, Denmark, def. Elina Svitolina, Ukraine, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (4). World Tour Rio Open Tuesday At Jockey Club Brasileiro-Rio de Janeiro Purse: $2,396,115 Surface: Red clay Seedings in parentheses Men’s Singles Round of 32 Luciano Darderi, Italy, def. Hugo Dellien, Bolivia, 7-6 (2), 2-2, ret. Damir Dzumhur, Bosnia-Herzegovina, def.

“It’s a head-scratcher for sure, for he and Cliff and the whole team,” Gordon said. “But I’m sure they’ll ﬁgure it out.”

Owen Larson, perhaps his father’s harshest critic, disagrees. Until his father gets better his oldest child believes Daytona is always going to be a struggle for Larson.

“He has to try harder,” Owen Larson said. And what specific area? “Probably drafting.”

Perhaps Larson should take his son’s advice before NASCAR gets to Talladega later this spring.

Dusan Lajovic, Serbia, 6-3, 6-4. Sebastian Baez (5), Argentina, def. Roman Andres Burruchaga, Argentina, 6-3, 7-5. Tomas Martin Etcheverry (8), Argentina, def. Corentin Moutet, France, 6-3, 7-6 (1). Jaime Faria, Portugal, def. Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera, Chile, 6-2, 7-5. Mariano Navone, Argentina, def. Roberto Carballes Baena, Spain, 6-4, 6-3. Francisco Cerundolo (4), Argentina, def. Hugo Gaston, France, 7-6 (9), 6-0. ATP-Qatar Open Tuesday At Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex Doha, Qatar Purse: $2,760,000 Surface: Hardcourt outdoor Sseedings in parentheses Men’s Singles Round of 32 Luca Nardi, Italy, def. Zhang Zhizhen, China, 6-4, 6-3. Nuno Borges, Portugal, def. Otto Virtanen, Finland, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Alex de Minaur (2), Australia, def. Roman Saﬁullin, Russia, 6-1, 7-5. Botic Van de Zandschulp, Netherlands, def. Abdullah Shelbayh, Jordan, 7-5, 6-3. Andrey Rublev (5), Russia, def. Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-4. Zizou Bergs, Belgium, def. Roberto Bautista Agut, Spain, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Tallon Griekspoor, Netherlands, def. JanLennard Struff, Germany, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7). Daniil Medvedev (4), Russia, def. Karen Khachanov, Russia, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Canada, def. Quentin Halys, France, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2). Matteo Berrettini, Italy, def. Novak Djokovic (3), Serbia, 7-6 (4), 6-2. Hamad Medjedovic, Serbia, def. Stefanos Tsitsipas (6), Greece, 7-6 (6), 5-7, 7-6 (5). Men’s Doubles Round of 16 Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury, Britain, def. Matthew Ebden, Australia, and Joran Vliegen, Belgium, 6-3, 7-6 (3). Rohan Bopanna, India, and Nuno Borges, Portugal, def. Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori (4), Italy, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4). Michael Venus, New Zealand, and Nikola Mektic, Croatia, def. Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz (3), Germany, 6-4, 6-4. Mate Pavic, Croatia, and Marcelo ArevaloGonzalez (1), El Salvador, def. Jamie Murray

6-1, 7-5.

and John Peers,

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRIS O’MEARA

Kyle Larson (5), Cole Custer (41), Anthony Alfredo (62) and BJ McLeod (78) crash during the second of two NASCAR Daytona 500 qualifying races on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Wine-soaked Krewe of Cork, where Mardi Gras meets New Orleans hospitality, marks 25 years

BY IAN McNULTY Staff writer

The invitation to a certain type of Friday lunch in New Orleans comes with the implication that no one will return to the office afterward. Wine will ﬂow, hours will pass and the day will be glorious.

It was just such a lunch that inspired the Krewe of Cork, a Carnival club dedicated to wine,

friendships and the good feelings it animates.

Its annual parade and yearround traditions sit at the intersection of Carnival and the city’s hospitality culture, and this year marks the 25th anniversary of the krewe’s unlikely but oh-soNew Orleans origin.

The marching krewe parades at 3 p.m. Friday, following a winding route through the French Quarter, always starting at the

Court of Two Sisters restaurant and ending at the Royal Sonesta Hotel.

There’s a marching band to set the pace, copious wine, costumes rifﬁng on wine themes and, behind it all, Cork’s king for life, Patrick van Hoorebeck, a wineloving expat from Brussels who started the lunch that started it all.

ä See CORK, page 2D

Tom Fitzmorris’ impact on local food culture endures

BY IAN McNULTY Staff writer

As New Orleans people, we talk about food constantly because it means so much to us. It is a cultural asset and a ﬂuency in New Orleans food is one of the threads of our shared identity.

The community has lost an institution who for many years helped forge these links through food Tom Fitzmorris died on Feb. 12 at age 74. He gave voice to the local zeitgeist of this community’s food obsession and brought the voices of others into it. He taught many how to talk the talk, and he gave them a platform. He orchestrated a conversation about food, not exclusively restaurants, and while that conversation covered the waterfront, the

PHOTO

Changing roles, constant voice Through the years, and often concurrently, Fitzmorris wrote restaurant reviews, hosted a food radio show, wrote cookbooks, moderated an online message board, worked as an advertising pitchman and produced newsletters (ﬁrst in print, then digitally) exceptionally rich in depth, detail and opinion. He sang to his radio audiences. He shared diary entry insight into how his work and his personal life entwined (an inevitability in this calling). He pronounced every syllable of “poor boy.” Those who take on the role of critic are inevitably up for critique themselves. Fitzmorris, who put so much of himself into his work, gave his own critics plenty of material. Was he curmudgeonly and stuck in his ways? Or was he an unapologetic champion of things he valued and

to try to win dinner for two with him in 1985.

STAFF FILE PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE

A member of the Krewe of Cork carries a giant chalice decorated as a disco ball as the parade celebrating food, wine and fun makes its way through the French Quarter in 2024.

The Krewe of Cork is marking its 25th year of parading Friday.

PROVIDED

Tom Fitzmorris, restaurant critic and thenpublisher of Menu magazine, entices bidders

FILE PHOTO By FRANK METHE

krewe salutes duos as ‘Tucks Loves a Great Pair’

More than 1,000 costumed partygoers packed the grand ballroom of the Marriott New Orleans recently for “debaucherous festive merriment” and to pay tribute to the monarchs who will preside over the 57th edition of one of Carnival’s most fun and irreverent spectacles the Krewe of Tucks parade

This year’s parade, “Tucks Loves a Great Pair,” pays tribute to all of the things and people that go incredibly well together, including “Red Beans and Rice,” “Good and Evil,” “Tarzan and Jane” and many more.

Like “Tucks and Partying,” the great pairs didn’t stop there! Riders and guests alike dressed as their favorite duos and took the danceﬂoor by storm, vibrating to the electrifying sounds of Bag of Donuts.

King Chris Bynog and Queen Ellie Livaudais Platt, the best pair of all, reigned over their loyal subjects. Her majesty wore a Marie Antoinetteinspired gown while his majesty sported traditional 18th-century-style French royal attire. As customary they clutched their Royal Plunger Scepters adorned

with jewels from faraway lands, sparkling in the stage lights.

The king was led by his royal jester, Robert Corley, while both monarchs were preceded by Tucks’ customary maids, clad in French Maid Outﬁts complete with feather dusters.

The maids included Mary Elizabeth Livaudais, Lauren Reichert, Janice Langley, Jessica Soileau, Alicia Aranguren, Kimberly Smith-Martin, Brooks Zitzman, Heidi Gurtner, Kelly Banks, Jaelith HallRivera, Leslie Kim, Dr Shelly Savant, Julie McKinney, Sarah Jane Lowery, Christine Rills and Mary King.

After the formal introductions were made, the L.B. Landry High School Marching Band led the entourage seated on top a great pair of mini ﬂoats through the sea of people in the ballroom.

The royals tossed plungers, pairs of Tucks blue balls and other throws. After several loops around the ballroom, and with the court’s throws exhausted, they disembarked and partied until the witching hour, when the masses retired for the evening.

By The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2025. There are 315 days left in the year

Today in history

On Feb. 19, 1942, during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which paved the way for the internment of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.-born citizens

On this date: In 1473, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland

In 1847, the ﬁrst rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, who had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the California-Nevada border for nearly four months.

In 1878, inventor Thomas Edison was issued a patent for the phonograph.

In 1945, Operation Detachment began during World War II as the ﬁrst wave of U.S. Marines landed at Iwo Jima, where they commenced a successful monthlong battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.

In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford, calling the issuing of the 1942 internment order for people of Japanese ancestry “a sad day in American history,” signed a proclamation formally conﬁrming its termination.

In 2003, an Iranian military plane carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all 275 people on board.

In 2008, an ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a halfcentury in power; his brother Raúl was later named to succeed him.

Today’s birthdays: Singer Smokey Robinson is 85. Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) is 77. Author Amy Tan is 73. Actor Jeff Daniels is 70. Actor Ray Winstone is 68. Actor Leslie David Baker is 67 NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is 66 Tennis Hall of Famer Hana Mandlíková is 63. Singer Seal is 62. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 58. Author-cartoonist Jeff Kinney is 54. NBA center Nikola Jokic is 30. Singersongwriter Chappell Roan is 27. Actor Millie Bobby Brown is 21. TODAY IN HISTORY

FITZMORRIS

Continued from page 1D

standards he knew could be met? The answer might depend on what he was saying of a restaurant you loved (or perhaps you owned).

Old fashioned in some aspects, he was forever ﬁnding ways to continue his work as the media landscape changed, keeping the conversation going. People could call in to his radio show to argue over food and dissect opinions, but also share tips and intel. The same continued on internet message board threads the somewhat more considered precursors to today’s typically staccato social media comment streams Today those social media platforms are ﬂooded with food content, algorithmically designed to be engaging, but generally thin on authority or perspective That was never a problem for Fitzmorris, who drew from a lifelong relationship with New Orleans food as he tracked how trends changed and traditions persisted. Cooking up a legacy

Like his mentor, Richard Collin, “The Underground Gourmet,” he started with restaurant criticism and eventually added writing cookbooks to his repertoire.

CORK

Continued from page 1D

Dueling lunches

There was once a tiny, elegant restaurant on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter called Bistro at the Maison de Ville.

It was one stop on a circuit of such restaurants that cultivated the tradition of a long, indulgent Friday lunch. Van Hoorebeck was maître d’ at the Bistro, and to entice customers, he created a set-price lunch special with unlimited wine. He dubbed it

“Thank God It’s Cork Day!”

It was on a Friday before Mardi Gras in 2000 at one of these lunches when unlimited wine did what it is known to do: inspire spontaneous ideas that turn out brilliantly

“The room was ﬁlled with people who enjoy wine, enjoy life, understand the Friday lunch and understand Mardi Gras,” van Hoorebeck recalled. “When another foot parade passed by outside the restaurant, we thought, ‘We can do that, too!’” Diners poured out the door with the Bistro’s wineglasses in hand to celebrate in the street It felt like such a good idea, the next year it was formalized with the naming of a queen, and thus the traditions that make a krewe began to form.

Wine royalty

Cork hits the street on parade day with a ﬂourish of color and freewheeling, wine-fueled bonhomie. There are no ﬂoats, but wagons are tended by the “wine police,” stewards for the procession who keep members’

for

He could guide his audiences on dining out and coach them on cooking great meals at home. For New Orleans food, this was a particularly important ﬂex That’s because cooking at traditional restaurants is closely related to home cooking. Often the measure of New Orleans restaurants is how closely their food resembles the template set at home by one’s own family That was certainly a lens Fitzmorris brought to restaurants, and his cookbook recipes leave behind a tangible legacy for food lovers. The constant through his

career was his voice and his insistent message that New Orleans is not just a place obsessed with food, but one blessed with a food unlike anywhere else, a cuisine particular to the place that created it and the people who keep it central in our culture. That includes chefs and restaurant pros and a public that appreciates the idea of New Orleans cuisine. Fitzmorris was also one of these keepers of the culture. He made an outsized impact for decades as the narrator, raconteur historian and analyst that connected others

Krewe of Cork hits the streets of the French Quarter on Friday with a flourish of color and freewheeling wine-fueled bonhomie.

signature goblets brimming.

Spectators line the route angling for signature krewe medallions shaped into grape clusters.

At the foundation of the big day are connections woven through the greater world of wine.

Many krewe members work in the hospitality and wine industries, and each year, the krewe invites a major player in the wine business to be grand marshal. This year, the grand marshal is Jean-Charles Boisset, the head of many wineries (DeLoach is perhaps the bestknown brand under the Boisset umbrella).

Grand marshals are feted like visiting royalty, from a motorcade reception at the airport to the fervor of French Quarter crowds. That’s one way the leg-

through a common compulsion.

“What most engages me, in work and play, is the food of New Orleans. I love it passionately,” Fitzmorris wrote in his 2010 book “Hungry Town.”

This community will keep

talking about food; as long as people take the topic personally, that conversation will be endless. But there’s no doubt we will miss the voice Fitzmorris brought to it all, and the passion that he shared. Services include a wake

end of the Krewe of Cork has grown in the tight-knit wine community Smaller groups of krewe members convene at restaurants for monthly Friday lunches, in the spirit of that original lunch at the Bistro 25 years ago. Van Hoorebeck today runs the French Quarter wine bar Patrick’s Bar Vin, where one room is dedicated to the krewe, just as grand New Orleans restaurants have rooms for older Carnival organizations. It’s a place where the spirit of the krewe carries on through the year “A nice bottle of wine brings people together and they can become family,” said van Hoorebeck. “That’s the Krewe of Cork.”

Email Ian McNulty at imcnulty@theadvocate.com.

Aranguren

Lowery

Kim Savant

Gurtner

Reichert

Langley

Soileau

Banks McKinney King Smith-Martin Hall-Rivera Rills

Livaudais Zitzman

Ellie Livaudais Platt, queen of Tucks 2025

PHOTO

BRETT DUKE

FILE PHOTO

Tom Fitzmorris in 1979. Fitzmorris was among the keepers of New Orleans food culture. He made an outsized impact

decades

the narrator, raconteur, historian and analyst that connected others through a common compulsion.

BOWLED OVER!

n Benson Bash

Superlatives abounded All to describe the extraordinary Super Bowl LIX socializing hosted by Gayle Benson and The New Orleans Saints Organization that unfolded in City Park, on Victory Avenue. Scriptura did the black-stock invitation with gold lettering that invited the majority of guests for 9 p.m., “cocktails and dancing.” Others, the bash’s brass, arrived earlier for dinner A “build” by the worldrenowned Van Wyck & Van Wyck encased the celebration, which showcased New Orleans’ cultural and economic significance, as well as initiatives of Mrs. Benson. The façade of the main building, depicting the Cabildo, was bathed in blue lighting and perfectly placed patches of bougainvillea. Within, a four-tiered fountain centered the entrance room, where noted works of art from the city were echoed and roses in small round vases topped tables As the space continued, lounge areas invited chatter and floral profusions added further embellishment. A huge curtain was pulled back after a while to reveal an even larger room and a stage for the music makers, Got Groove and NOLA Brass Band. Pigeon Catering and Events fed the LIX flock, and Johnny Lopez of Perfect Presentations did the flowers. In a “built” pavilion, the first guests dined with entertainment by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and Harry Connick Jr Joining the hostess, owner of the Saints, were Speaker of the House Mike Johnson; Gov Jeff Landry; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell; such team owners as Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), Robert Kraft (New England Patriots) and Mark Davis (Las Vegas Raiders); former Today Show host Hoda Kotb; actor Wendell Pierce; Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter; 2006 NBA Coach of the Year Avery Johnson; Saints legend Drew Brees; and pro football Coach Sean Payton (formerly with the Saints, and now, Denver Broncos). From the local area, to mention a few of the legions, were university presidents Mike Fitz (Tulane), Xavier Cole (Loyola) and Reynold Verret (Xavier), as well as Archbishop Gregory Aymond and, from Florida, Gayle Benson’s brother, Wayne LaJaunie After their dinner, they arrived midway through the 9 p.m gallivanting to mingle with a gamut of representative Orleanians from the business, education, sports, art, judicial, political, media, Carnival (including at least three former Rexes) and social world.

In the band room, which was streamed with blue and red lighting, and above a pair of sconces on a crimson wall, was the neon-lit, Cajun French exhortation, “Laissez les bons temps rouler.” About a thousand full-of-praise partygoers did.

Jeanne and John Baxter

n Legends for Charity

Add

years, the event has introduced the sports broadcast world and many NFL players to the mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Located at the Hyatt Regency, and opened with a red carpet coursing, Legends for Charity’s recent dinner presented The Pat Summerall Award to Hannah Storm, ESPN anchor, award-winning director and producer. Dan Hicks, NBC Sports broadcaster presented the award, and Chris Berman, NFL Studio host, anchor, SportsCenter on ESPN, served as host. The dinner which amassed 600 people was by Ocean 2 Ocean Productions, Inc. Carol and Al Bienvenu chaired the event, which included Gigi and Mooney Nalty, Marcel and Billy Perez,

Nell Nolan SOCIETY

Contact: nnolan@theadvocate.com

n Manning Munificence

After the evening’s key announcement and on-stage program, the lyrics “That tonight’s gonna be a good, good night” from “I Gotta Feeling” emanated from the sound system. Essentially those words set the tone for the entirety of the event.

Held in the capacious Louisiana NOW Pavilion as a fun fundraiser, Louisiana Legacy presented by Raising Cane’s honored the Manning family, the ﬁrst family of football. The program’s cover stated the beneﬁciary: Children’s Hospital, New Orleans LCMC Health. But, a name change awaited. Notables were numerous and included hospital President and CEO Lucio A. Fragoso (with Jill); LL co-chairs Danielle and Deuce McAllister and Louellen and Darryl Berger; and, among the top sponsors, Tina and Barry Kern and family Cathy and Walter Isaacson, Gary Solomon Jr (representing the Solomon Family) and Seth Bloom, Sarah and LCMC Health CEO Greg Feirn, Nancy and Dr Stephen Hales, Marye and John Nickens, and Betty Lauricella (Lauricella Land Company LLC).

At 6 p.m., the patron party sponsored by Lemoine began, with beverages from four drink sponsors, and the signature Manning Margarita, and food by Pigeon Catering.

After the Louisiana Legacy award presentation to Olivia and Archie Manning and the Manning family, the main event revved up at 7:30 with music and a second line hoisting requisite umbrellas. Guests sat for the main-event ﬁreside chat — opened by Greg Feirn, Lou Fragoso, and Todd Graves of Raising Cane’s with the Manning family consisting of Archie and Olivia and sons Eli and informal emcee Cooper, and Deuce McAllister, who joked about wanting to be adopted by the Mannings. He also anticipated an Eagles win in the Super Bowl. Sunday’s game proved him right.

“Our mission, to save kids,” stated Fragoso, who turned back the clock to the 1955 opening of Children’s Hospital New Orleans. He added, “We have come a long way.” Listening attentively, and enjoying the chat’s memories and laughs, were Ellen Heidingsfelder (Mrs. Cooper) Manning Katy and Howell Crosby, Laura and Philip Claverie, Helena Moreno and Chris Meeks,Walt Leger III, Sandy Villere III, Ben Dupuy, Julie and Ted George, Brandon Berger, JP Hymel, Ryan and Amanda Berger, Charlie Heidingsfelder and Nickie Lane, Kay and Bobby Kerrigan, Michael Hecht and spouse Marlene Friis, Karey Haslauer and Dwight LeBlanc III, Donna Kay Berger and Tod A. Smith the hospital’s board chair

Dr Stephen Hales stepped forward to conclude the chat and focus on legacy and the Manning family As Hales brought up a “best kept secret,” gold, silver and black balloons descended upon the announcement of the new name of Children’s Hospital: Manning Family Children’s. Applause and jubilation followed. So did more trips to the buffet tables for delicious braised beef short ribs, trufﬂe mashed potatoes, and the nearby array of pastries, including big turtles. Yum! To wrap up the revelry with music, Amanda Shaw, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr and Marc Broussard were scheduled. Dopsie’s “Hey Baby” lured a pack to the dance ﬂoor, including Fragoso, who danced, gyrated, and sported glow wreaths as headgear

n Providence Past

Brown University, which is located in Providence, Rhode Island, has scores of alumni. A sports star among them is legendary ESPN broadcaster Chris “Boomer” Berman class of ’77, who was the draw and the honoree when the Brown Club of New Orleans (BCNO) held a special Super Bowl Weekend reception at the impressive Garden District home of alumnus Jack Carrere, ’06, and his wife, Anne Both a Brown banner and a school ﬂag were situated on the façade.

Although the alma maters of the host couple’s parents were elsewhere, Jack and Anne invited his father, John Carerre, and her mother and father, Dabney and Clyde Jacob

Other non-alums mingled at the midday party, but the “true” Brunonians were Berman, Peter Kovacs, Malcolm Andry, Jane Bertrand,Anne Bisbano, Michael Castine, Elena Daniele, Lucinda Flowers, Jesse Frank, Stephanie Grace, Lee Hays, Jeff Herbst, Kristen Mason, Mark Morris, Michele Parmelee, Marcy Planer,Aaron Ruffin, BCNO co-president Anne Vollen, Ed Wayda, Peter Wenstrup, and Zachary Wool. Howard Fielding Jr , ’54, and Neehar Desai ’23, whose graduation dates bookended the listing and produced a 69-year span, were unable to attend.

Those present feasted on a ﬁne luncheon spread, enjoyed conversing with and hearing from honoree Berman, picked up Brown insignia, and recalled scholastic treks through the Van Wickle Gates. They also anticipated with pride how the Crescent City would shine during the chockablock Super Bowl salute.

STAFF PHOTO By NELL NOLAN

Wayne LaJaunie, Gayle Benson

STAFF PHOTO By NELL NOLAN

Donna Kay Berger, police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick

PHOTO By JEFF STROUT

Mayra Pineda, Stephanie Burks, Gregory Curtis, Sunae Villavaso

PHOTO By JEFF STROUT

Jennifer and Fred Heebe

PHOTO By JEFF STROUT

Sarah Jane McMahon Briscoe and Brandon Briscoe

PHOTO By JEFF STROUT Dottie and Judge Kern Reese, Margo DuBos

PHOTO By JEFF STROUT Marlene Friis, Michael Hecht, Gay LeBreton

PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT

Cooper Manning, Archie Manning, Louellen and Darryl Berger

Eli Manning, Olivia Manning, Todd Graves

John Nickens, Lou Fragoso

Greg Feirn, Nancy and Dr Stephen Hales

PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT Al and Carol Bienvenu John and Kathleen Kazour, Machelle and John Payne

James Barkate, Steve Friedman, Ben Butler

PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT

Peter Kovacs, Anne and Jack Carrere, Chris Berman

Jane Bertrand, Peter Wenstrup, Anne Bisbano Mary Sparacello, Anne Vollen

Children’s Carnival Club celebrates centennial ball

The Golden Centennial Celebration of the Children’s Carnival Club marked the 100th bal masque of the organization Sunday in the grand ballroom of the Roosevelt New Orleans.

Founded in 1925, the goal has been to ensure the children’s heritage within the framework of New Orleans Carnival society Pageantry, make-believe and storytelling have made way for its long-standing traditions Reigning over the festivities as King and Queen Once Upon A Time were Mr Connor Fredrick Langston, son of Mr and Mrs Shane Fredrick Langston, of Southlake, Texas; and Miss Amelie Marie Sharp, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Cary Jason Sharp, of Baton Rouge. Maids were Misses Amelia Ann and Emery Grace Alvarez, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Alvarez; Elizabeth Abigail Childress, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Joseph Penn Childress; Jules Marguerite Donaldson daughter of Mr and Mrs. William Eugene Donaldson of Denham Springs; Elizabeth Ramsey Goldman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Briscoe Goldman; Mary Claire Hodnette daughter of Dr and Mrs. Christopher Michael Hodnette; and Caroline Best LaCour daughter of Mr and Mrs. Mark LaCour Dukes escorting the maids were Messrs. Bennett Clarence Childress, son of Mr and Mrs. Childress; Luke Jackson Connell, son of Dr and Mrs. Brian Douglas Connell; Jackson Carneal Goldman son of Mr and Mrs. Goldman; Mason Bradley Hayes, son of Major and Mrs. Bradley T Hayes; James Beauregard Kessler son of Mr and Mrs. Jeffrey Darren Kessler; Bennett Dalton Matrana, son of Dr and Mrs. Mark Ryan Matrana; and Anthony Roberto Rocha, son of Mr and Mrs. Jorge Robert Rocha.

Captain James Hollis Holliday, son of Mr and Mrs. Stephen James Holliday of Baton Rouge, opened the festivities.

The pages to their majesties were Michael Westley Johnsey Jr., son of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Johnsey; Mark Joseph LaCour Jr., son of Mr and Mrs. LaCour Sr.; Johan Alexander and Mattias Vincent Larsson, sons of Mr and Mrs. Johan Martin Larsson of Palm Coast, Florida; Henry Joseph Mauro, son of Dr and Mrs. Joshua Joseph Mauro, of Rochester, New York; and Daniel Louis Poché, son of Dr Eric James Poché and Dr Lauren Doughty Poché.

The monarchs and court were assisted by line lieu-

tenants Messrs. Gatlin William Anthony Klein, Ira Benjamin Acosta, James Raymond Villa of Baton Rouge and Adam Emory DeGenova.

Girl court captains were Misses Lane Sarah Connell, daughter of Dr and Mrs. Brian Douglas Connell; Landry Claire Hayes, daughter of Major and Mrs. Bradley Thomas Hayes; Ann Frances Hodnette, daughter of Dr and Mrs. Hodnette; Charlotte Spencer LaCour, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Mark LaCour; Miss Alicia Eva Rocha, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Jorge Roberto Rocha; and Keira Janley Vollman, daughter of Mr and Mrs. John Francis Vollman.

Royal princesses Misses Charlotte Kerstine Bartomeo, daughter of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Matthew Gerard

Bartomeo of St. Louis, Missouri; Abigail Grace Ann Goldman, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Goldman; Adelaide Rose Houser daughter Mr and Mrs. James Stephen Houser of Edmond, Oklahoma; Emily Mable Johnsey, daughter of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Michael Westley; Marion Halcyann Poche, daughter of the Drs. Poché; Julia Jane Ruddock, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Theodore Davis Ruddock IV; Samantha Josephine and Natalie Florence Sharpe, daughters of Mr and Mrs. Matthew Samuel Sharpe; Mathilde Eugenie Waldron, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Ryan Lee Waldron; and Shea Marie and Quinn Lainey Sheridan, daughters of Mr Patrick Sheridan and Dr Jacqueline Magné. The 2024 monarchs, King Shane Aubrey Langston, son of Mr and Mrs. Langston, and Queen Gabrielle Marie Dennis, daughter of Dr and Mrs. Patrick Dennis, welcomed the new court. Previous Captain Jackson Avery Ellis, son of Mr and Mrs. Henry Jackson Ellis of Birmingham, Alabama, ofﬁciated the changing of the court, followed by the 2024 royal court members. Numerous past monarchs were honored, including the

oldest known living monarch, Mrs. Ralph Magnus Onstad, who reigned as Queen Florence Elizabeth O’Connor in 1940. Debutantes of the season, Misses Mackenzie Leigh Langston (2019 queen) and Rebecca Gabrielle Langston (2020 queen), sisters of the King, were presented by their father Mr Shane Patrick Langston, and older brother, Jason Barq Johnson Jr., respectively By royal proclamation, a ballet performance under the direction of Richard Rholdon, serving as ballet master for the Maria and Joseph Giacobbe School of Dance, was presented. Mr Charles F. Childress Jr presented the monarch’s traditional royal gift to St. Michael’s Special School, received by Master Peter Nalty General dancing, merriment and royal greetings continued to the tunes of The Robert Maxwell Orchestra. General chairman of the ball was Dr W. Kenneth Mann Jr assisted by Mr Childress Jr The court committee was Mr Marvin R. Russell Jr., chairman, and Mr J. Warren Browning. The ﬂoor committee was Dr David C. DeGenova, chairman, and Mr Mark A. Bickham.

Dear Annie: I’ve been married for over 20 years, and my husband has always handled our ﬁnances. I trusted him to take care of everything, but recently, I’ve started to feel uneasy When I ask about our savings, bills or retirement plans, he either brushes me off or gives vague answers. I don’t know if he’s hiding something or

if he just doesn’t think I need to know I don’t want to accuse him of anything, but I also don’t want to be in the dark about our ﬁnancial situation. What if something happens to him? How do I bring this up without starting a ﬁght or making him feel like I don’t trust him? — Feeling Left Out in Finances Dear Feeling Left Out: It’s completely understandable that you’re feeling uneasy Marriage is a partnership, and that in-

cludes ﬁnances. You’re not wrong to want to know where you stand, and your husband shouldn’t see that as a challenge; it’s simply good sense. The best way to approach this is with warmth, not accusation. Pick a calm moment and say something like, “I’d really like us to go over our ﬁnances together so I can feel more secure about our future. Can we sit down and review everything?” This keeps the conversation from feeling like an interrogation and instead

frames it as teamwork.

If he brushes you off, gently but ﬁrmly remind him that as his wife, you need to be informed.

If something were to happen to him, would you even know where to begin?

A responsible marriage means ensuring both partners have access to important ﬁnancial details.

If he continues to resist, there may be a deeper issue — whether it’s discomfort discussing money, ﬁnancial mismanagement

or something he’s afraid to reveal. In that case, it might help to bring in a neutral third party, like a ﬁnancial adviser, to make sure everything is in order This isn’t about trust; it’s about security

Every spouse deserves ﬁnancial transparency, and you have every right to feel informed and prepared.

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators. com.

Amelie Marie Sharp, Queen Once Upon A Time, Children’s Carnival Club 2025

Childress A. Alvarez LaCour Goldman Donaldson

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Stick close to home. Go over personal documents and update anything that needs it. Aim to replenish instead of going for broke. Put your health and financial wellbeing first.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Pay attention to what things cost and think about where your energy will have the most impact. Use all your resources and put your experience to work for you. A positive change will give you the boost you need.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Work toward your goal and resist interruptions. The less you let others know about you or your plans, the easier it will be to meet your deadlines. Refuse to let temptation eat away at your psyche.

TAuRus (April 20-May 20) Turn your surroundings into your place of refuge Do whatever it takes to make your place more comfortable and convenient. Don't underestimate your ability to bring people closer together.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Rethink your strategy and adjust your plans to suit your needs and budget. Say no to temptation and trouble. Make a healthy lifestyle your mission, and you'll find the path that leads to a brighter future.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Consider what makes you happy and follow that path. You are responsible for doing what brings you joy. Networking and social events will positively affect how you move forward.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Sit tight, be observant and consider every alternative. Time is on your side, regardless of what anyone tells you. It's best not to indulge in anything; be moderate and prudent.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) You are heading in the right direction; don't let anyone convince you otherwise. Communicating with like-minded people will encourage new beginnings.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Embrace life, broaden your mind, enhance possibilities and learn new skills. Life is yours to discover; stop postponing and start doing.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Recognize that you are in the driver's seat; forge ahead and make things happen. Your power is in your passion. Change begins with you, and following your heart will help you manifest your dreams.

sAGITTARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Reconsider how realistic your plans are before you head down a path that can cause mental or financial duress. You should take time out for recreational activities. cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) It's all about what and who you know and how to persuade others. Put your energy into running an efficient home and letting go of what's holding you back. Let go of what's weighing you down.

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

ToDAy's cLuE: V EQuALs T

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

FrAnK And erneSt

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

bIG nAte

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

By PHILLIP ALDER

Voltaire, whose real name was Francois-Marie Arouet, said, “Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.”

You have chances in bridge that are not void of sense if you have analyzed the available data. In this deal, though, it is knowledge of a void that gives you a chance to make a tough contract.

South is in six spades. West leads the heart jack. How should declarer proceed?

East opened three clubs to show a respectable seven-card suit and limited high-card values. True, because there is no weak two-bid in clubs, sometimes a playerwillopenthreeclubswithastrong six-card suit. But in this instance, if West had had a club, he would have led it.

North’sraisetofivespadeswasaggressive, but without it, South would not have had a story with which to bore dinner companions for weeks.

Declarer will initially think that if the diamond finesse works, he will take seven spades, two hearts, two diamonds and a diamond ruff in the dummy. But what chance has that finesse?

It is surely zero. Assuming West’s lead ishonest,Eastismarkedwithninepoints in hearts and clubs. With the diamond king as well, he would have opened one club, not three. There is one winning line.

South

the

draws two rounds of trumps ending on the board, and cashes the top hearts, discarding his diamond ace and queen! Then he ruffs a heart, removes West’s last

InsTRucTIons:

ToDAy’s

Average

Can

ruffs

first trick,

trump, and leads his remaining diamond. West must let declarer into the dummy. South takes seven spades,

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard

dIrectIons: make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 thorugh 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner. HErE is a

WiShinG Well

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe

animal crackerS

DuStin

Drabble

Wallace the brave

breWSter rockit

luann

BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans BT 13

MATHIS, BRADY & SPEDALE A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP

‐cent

O R L E A N S Case No: 2024-4650

MIN:1400545 WRIT AMOUNT:

$263,281.29

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans BT 13

NEWMAN, MATHIS BRADY & SPEDALE A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP 504-837-9040 WAYNE MAIO‐RANA

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $90.89

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 1531 ARTS STREET THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE AS‐SOCIATION VER‐SUS MELVIN PEPP JR

S Case No: 2024-4650 By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 27, 2025 at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 1531 ARTS ST NEW ORLEANS LA 70117 SQUARE 646, LOT 3 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN:1400545 WRIT AMOUNT: $263,281.29

WAYNE MAIO‐RANA The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $90.89 PUBLIC NOTICE

1531 ARTS ST NEW ORLEANS LA 70117 SQUARE 646, LOT 3 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ

MIN:1400545 WRIT AMOUNT: $263,281.29

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Seized in the above suit

TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans

BT 5

DEAN MORRIS, L.L.C

318-388-1440 ZACHARY GAR‐RETT YOUNG

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025

N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $87.10

PUBLIC NOTICE -

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 8100 CURRAN BD, THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: ROCKET MORTGAGE, LLC F/K/A QUICKEN LOANS, LLC VER‐SUS TREAT DE‐SPENZA AND DOMINIQUE HOWSE, INDI‐VIDUALLY, AND IN HER CAPAC‐ITY AS TESTA‐MENTARY EX‐ECUTOR OF THE SUCCESSION OF RONALD JOSEPH DESPENZA

SPENZA AND DOMINIQUE HOWSE INDI‐VIDUALLY, AND IN HER CAPAC‐ITY AS TESTA‐MENTARY EX‐

ECUTOR OF THE SUCCESSION OF RONALD JOSEPH DESPENZA

Case No: 2023-8904

CITY OF HARAHAN

FEB 19-MAR 262T $87.10

Case No: 2023-8904

By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 27, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 8100 CURRAN BD NEW ORLEANS, LA 70126 LOT 1 - SQUARE D

ACQ

2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit:

8100 CURRAN BD NEW ORLEANS, LA 70126 LOT 1 - SQUARE D ACQ MIN:1403295 NORTH KENIL‐WORTH SUBDI‐VISION THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT WRIT AMOUNT: $166,902.53

The following Ordinance was proposed by Councilman Chatelain and seconded by Councilman Asbill.

An Ordinance amending Ordinance No. 1990, the annual Budget of Revenues and Expenditures for the Fiscal Ye ending December 31, 2024, for the Capital Project Fund, the City of Harahan, Louisiana. (Police Department) Councilman Chatelain made amotion to amend line 23 increasing the amount from $7000.00 to $8000.00. Seconded by Councilman Asbill.

Mayor Baudier opened the public hearing on the amendment. No one spoke.

Mayor Baudier closed the public hearing.

Mayor Baudier called for the vote, the vote was as follows:

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

YEAS: Asbill, Budde, Chatelain, Johnston, Ricks NAYS: None

ABSENT:None ABSTAIN: None MOTION PASSES/ORDINANCE AMENDED

Mayor Baudier opened the public hearing on the Ordinance as amended.Noone spoke.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

Mayor Baudier closed the public hearing.

Mayor Baudier called for the vote, the vote was as follows:

YEAS: Asbill, Budde, Chatelain, Johnston, Ricks NAYS: None

BT 5 DEAN MORRIS L.L.C

ABSENT:None ABSTAIN: None MOTION PASSES/ORDINANCE PASSES

318-388-1440 ZACHARY GAR‐RETT YOUNG

ORDINANCES FOR INTRODUCTION (FIRST READING)

Thefollowing Ordinance was proposed by Councilman

Johnston. PROPOSED ORDINANCE NO. 2025-1

MIN:1403295 NORTH KENIL‐WORTH SUBDI‐VISION THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT WRIT AMOUNT: $166,902.53

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Carlo R. Ferrara Senior Center

OLD BUSINESS

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025

An Ordinance to rename the Harahan Senior Center as

1. Planning &Zoning Board Appointment

Krisa Exterstein

Mayor Baudier opened the public hearing. No one spoke.

Mayor Baudier closed the public hearing.

FEB 19-MAR 262T $87.10

Councilman Asbill made amotion to defer the appointment of Krisa Exterstein pending her information.

Seconded by Councilman Chatelain.

Mayor Baudier called for the vote, the vote was as follows:

YEAS: Asbill, Budde, Chatelain, Johnston, Ricks NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAIN: None MOTION PASSES/NOMINEE DEFERRED

NEW BUSINESS

New Business #1 Todd Tournillon, Finance Director –Toddw

absent. Councilman Chatelain made amotion to defer MayorBaudier opened the public hearing. No one spoke.

Mayor Baudier closed the public hearing.

Second By Councilman Ricks.

Council Discussion

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

1. Paul Johnston Mayor Baudier called for the vote, the vote was as follows:

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

YEAS: Asbill, Budde, Chatelain, Johnston, Ricks NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAIN: None MOTION PASSES/NEW BUSINESS #1 DEFERRED

ADDRESS THE COUNCIL No one addressed the Council.

BT 5 DEAN MORRIS L.L.C 318-388-1440 ZACHARY GAR‐RETT YOUNG

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $87.10

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

SECRETARY’S REPORT Secretary’sreport for December 2024 Total revenues $944,289.44

REPORTS Police Chief Lepre spoke and gave monthly statistics Chief St. Cyr –absent Councilman Asbill –noreport Councilman Budde –noreport Councilman Chatelain –noreport Councilman Johnston –noreport Councilman Ricks –n reportMayor Baudier spoke and asked for amoment silence for those who lost their life in the Bourbon Street terrorist attack.

PAYBILLS Bills paid in December 2024 Total expenditures $733,134.18

EXECUTIVE SESSION None

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

RB 35 THE LAW OF‐FICES OF HER‐SCHEL C. AD‐COCK, JR., L.L.C (225) 756-0373 COREY J.GIROIR

ADJOURN Motion by Councilman Johnston and seconded by Councilman Asbill to adjourn the meeting at 6:52PM. Mayor Baudier called for the vote, the vote was as follows:

YEAS: Asbill, Budde, Chatelain, Johnston, Ricks NAYS: None

ABSENT:None ABSTAIN: None MOTION PASSES/MEETING ADJOURNED

A. Thefollowing matter involving pending litigation may considered (Court, Case Number,Parties): 1. Wood Materials LLC, Wood Resources LLC v. City Harahan, 24th JDC, Case 761-783, Div.“K” 2. MelanieSeeling v. City of Harahan, et al, C-734196 19th JDC, Div ?, Case 734-196 3. Adams v. City of Harahan, US District Court for Eastern District of Louisiana, Section H, Div 1, Civil Action Number 20-2794

B. The following matter involving prospective litigation for which formal written demand has been made may considered.

C. The following matters involving discussion of the character professional competence, or physical or mental health of: Name: Submitted by: Carrie Heustis Carrie Heustis, City Clerk (Electronically Signed)

RB 35 THE LAW OF‐FICES OF HER‐SCHEL C. AD‐COCK, JR., L.L.C (225) 756-0373 COREY J.GIROIR

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $95.13

RB 35 THE LAW OF‐FICES OF HER‐SCHEL C. AD‐COCK, JR., L.L.C (225) 756-0373 COREY J.GIROIR

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $95.13

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $95.13 ‐

ceed to

ﬂoor

District Court Building,

Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of

2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 3670 GENTILLY BD NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70122 LOTS 28,27,26 & 25; SQUARE "B" THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN 612749 BOULEVARD HEIGHTS SUBDI‐VISION WRIT AMOUNT: $185,614.75

Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans

RB 4 LAW OFFICES OF HERSCHEL C. ADCOCK, JR. LLC (225) 756-0373 COREY J. GOROIR

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $93.54

at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: THAT CERTAIN LOT OF GROUND, TOGETHER WITH ALL OF THE BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON, AND ALL OF THE RIGHTS, WAYS, PRIVILEGES SERVITUDES, APPURTE‐NANCES AND ADVANTAGES THEREUNTO BE‐LONGING OR IN ANYWISE AP‐PERTAINING, SITUATED IN THE FIFTH DIS‐TRICT OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS PARISH OF OR‐LEANS, STATE OF LOUISIANA, IN GARDEN PARK SUBDIVISION, IN SQUARE A WHICH SQUARE IS BOUNDED BY GENERAL DE‐GAULLE DRIVE, GARDEN OAKS DRIVE, SEINE DRIVE AND THE WEST‐ERN BOUNDARY OF THE SUBDIVISIION, DESIGNATED AS UNNIT OR HOME 27, INCLUDING AN UNDIVIDED 4.166 PERCENT OWN‐ERSHIP INTER‐EST IN THE COMMON ELE‐MENTS FORTH IN THE CERTAIN DE‐CLARATIN OF CONDOMINIUM OWNERSHIP OF THE HERITAGE LANE CONDOMINIUM BY ACT BEFORE CAMILLE A. DUTRONE, NO‐TARY PUBLIC DATED SEPTEMBER 29, 1980, REGIS‐TERED IN COB 773B FOLIO 486, ENTRY NO 389703, AS AMENDED TO‐GETHER WITH THE SURVEY, PLAT AND OTHER INSTRU‐MENTS AND DOCUMENTS ANNEXED THERETO AND INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE THEREIN, WHICH ESTAB‐LISHES THE HERITAGE LANE CONDOMINIUM AND WHICH IN‐CLUDES AMOUNT THE COMMON ELE‐MENTS THEREOF.

WRIT AMOUNT: $41,605 89

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

GH 15 JACK‐SON&MCPHER‐SON LLC 504-581-9444 CRIS JACKSON

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $135.36

NEW ORLEANS, IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: CITI‐ZENS EQUITY FIRST CREDIT UNION VERSUS JONES REAL ES‐TATE INVESTMENTS LLC

Case No: 2024-9420

By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 2612-2614 SO‐NIAT ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70114 LOTS 3, 4, 2, 5, 2B AND 5-BSQUARE 652 6TH MUNIIPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1381877 WRIT AMOUNT:

$415,417.24

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans RB 8 CEFCU 504-299-2262 BRANDON KEAY

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025

$88.77 jan 15-feb 19-2t

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL

Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 6515 FLEUR DE LIS DR NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70124 LOTS 15 AND 16 - SQUARE 63A 7TH MUNICIPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1398274 WEST END TRACT OF METAIRIE PARK SUBDIVISION WRIT AMOUNT:

$201,997.24

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

RB 12 DEAN MORRIS, LLC 318-388-1440 ZACHARY GAR‐RETT YOUNG

The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025

$68.54 jan 15-feb 19-2t

PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT

THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND, BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NO 3026 FELI‐CIANA STREET CITY OF NEW ORLEANS IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS VERSUS RE‐BECCA ROBIN‐SON MURRAY, OR HER SUCCES‐SORS HEIRS AND ASSIGNS, LAWRENCE MURRAY OR HIS SUCCESSORS HEIRS, OR AS‐SIGNS, HARRISON JOHN MURRAY, JR , EDWARD ROBERT MUR‐RAY THERESA MURRAY GREEN OR HER SUCCESSORS, HEIRS, AND AS‐SIGNS, AND ORELIA MURRAY STEVENSON C

Case No: 2019-2781

By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 3026 FELICIANA STREET LOT 4, SQUARE 1906, THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT, ACQUIRED MIN 1259965 WRIT AMOUNT:

1259965 WRIT AMOUNT:

$18,710.00

Seized in the above suit

TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans

BD 1 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (504) 658-4346 LATEEFAH E HARRIS

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025 $97.77 jan 15-feb 19-2t

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIAL NUMBER 6001 BULLAED AV, CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS VERSUS BULLARD CEN‐TER INVEST‐MENTS, LLC

Case No: 2024-9005

By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 6001 BULLARD AV NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70128 LOT 3C-4-1SQUARE 26 3RD MUNICIPAL DISTRICT CIN: 591297 LAKRATT TRACT WRIT AMOUNT: $15,970.00

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans RB 7 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 504-658-4346 CHARMAINE L MARCHAND

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025

$88.24 jan 15-feb 19-2t

PUBLIC NOTICE -

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 6953 EAST LAVERNE STREET THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTITLED: WELLS FARGO BANK, N A , AS TRUSTEE, FOR PARK PLACE SE‐CURITIES, INC ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2005WCW1 VERSUS GLEN L WILSON, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS SURVIV‐ING SPOUSE IN COMMUNITY WITH MARTHA WILSON A/K/A MARTHA HART WILSON

Case No: 2023-3610

By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 6953 E LAVERNE ST NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70126 SQUARE 16-A, LOT 33 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN:814553 WRIT AMOUNT: $83,887.12 Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Or‐leans BT 6 JACKSON & MCPHERSON, LLC 504-581-9444 RACHEL BREAUX

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025 $94.54 jan 15-feb 19-2t

O R L E A N S Case No: 2022-1876

By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 6045 PINES BOULEVARD LOT 16, SQUARE 4, THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT, PINES VILLAGE SUBDIVISION ACQUIRED MIN 1383896 WRIT AMOUNT: $17,915.00

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans BD 5 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (504) 658-4346 MARSHALL G. GRIES

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025

$89.83 jan 15-feb 19-2t

PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 3011 LAUSSAT PL THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS VERSUS GOOD SAMARITAN BAPTIST CHURCH (A/K/A MOUNT ROCK BAPTIST CHURCH)

PORTION OF GROUND, BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NO 4016 NORTH MIRO STREET, CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS VERSUS ROBERT PRICE OR HIS SUCCESSORS, HEIRS & AS‐SIGNS CARRIE MILES PRICE OR HER SUCCES‐SORS, HEIRS & ASSIGNS AND RONALDO DUGARS, SR C

Case No: 2021-10246

By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 4016 NORTH MIRO STREET LOT L, SQUARE 1084, THIRD MINICI‐PAL DISTRICT, ACQUIRED MIN 1314021 WRIT AMOUNT: $5,205.00

Case No: 2023-11488 By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 3011 LAUSSAT PL NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70117 LOT 16 - SQUARE 1482-A THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN:1380252 WRIT AMOUNT: $1,710.00

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Or‐leans BD 3 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 504-658-4346 MARSHALL G GRIES

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025 $90.89 jan 15-feb 19-2t

AMOUNT: $388,425.22

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING. Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans RB 16 GRAHAM, ARCE‐NEAUX & ALLEN, LLC 504-522-8256 FOERSTNER G. MEYER The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025 $91.90 jan 15-feb

Loyola

trict

on March 27, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 1929-31 FRANKLIN AV NEW ORLEANS LA 70117 LOT: B-3 SQUARE: 922 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN; 1401503 WRIT AMOUNT: $250,250.00

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks. FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans GH 24 LOGS LEGAL GROUP LLP 504-838-7535 AMY ORTIS

The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $89.30

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

GH 9 DEAN MORRIS, LLC 318-388-1440 ASHLEY E. MORRIS

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025

FEB 19-MAR 262T $94.07

PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 2855 ALLEN ST THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: U S BANK TRUST NA‐TIONAL ASSOCI‐ATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS OWNER TRUSTEE FOR RCF 2 ACQUISI‐TION TRUST C/O U S BANK TRUST NA‐TIONAL ASSOCI‐ATION VERSUS JACQUELYN LEWIS GRAY A/K/A JACQUE‐LYN LEWIS HYMAL GRAY AND SHANNON HYMEL YOUNG

C I V I L D I S T R I C T C O U R T F O R P A R I S H O F O R L E A N S Case No: 2024-697

By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 27, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 2855 ALLEN ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70119 SQUARE 1719, LOT 26 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT WRIT AMOUNT: $118,483.45

v TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

BT 10 DEAN MORRIS, LLC

318-388-1440 ZACHARY GAR‐RETT YOUNG

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $

PUBLIC NOTICE

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT

THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 6022 CAMERON BLVD, THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: HOME BANK, N A VER‐SUS KJT TRANS‐PORTATION OF LOUISIANA LLC; KEITH J JACK‐SON AND KELLIE M COOPER C

Case No: 2024-7636

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans BT 32 NEWMAN, MATHIS BRADY & SPEDALE A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP 504-837-9040 WAYNE A. MAIO‐RANA, JR.

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $90.89

District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 27, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 604 ESPLANADE AV NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70116 LOT: 3, SQUARE: 52 SECOND MUNIC‐IPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1191434 WRIT AMOUNT: $848,180.03

ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order.

PELMEAR A/K/A DAWN ADELE PELMEAR DORAN

Case No: 2024-10122

3423 ANNUNICA‐TION ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115 LOT B - SQUARE 158 6TH MINICIPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1280031 WRIT AMOUNT: $322,121.20

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans

RB 6 DEAN MORRIS, LLC 318-388-1440 CANDACE A COURTEAU

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/5/2025 & 3/12/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $89.83

Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans GH 33 SESSIONS, FISH‐MAN, NATHAN & ISRAEL, LLC 504-582-1500 PETER S. TITLE

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/19/2025 & 3/26/2025 FEB 19-MAR 262T $86.66

NOTICE

SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CRTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 3026 CASTIGLIONE ST,CITY OF NEW ORLEANS I THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: LLACG COMMUNITY IN‐VESTMENT FUND VERSUS LLOYD R MACKEY

Case No: 2023-11746 By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 3026 CAS‐TIGLIONE ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70119 LOT A-1SQUARE 1769 3RD MUNICIPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 953600 WRIT AMOUNT: $138,772.30

Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks. FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson

PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT PORTION OF GROUND BEARING MU‐NICIPAL NO 1667 TREASURE STREET NEW ORLEANS, LA, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: BANK OF NEW YORK MEL‐LON TRUST COMPANY N A AS TRUSTEE FOR MORTGAGE ASSETS MAN‐AGEMENT SE‐RIES I TRUST VERSUS MARGIE R VANCE

Case No: 2019-3636

By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 7371 BEAU ST LOT NO 8 SQUARE NO. 2 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1256066 WRIT AMOUNT: $6,855.00

By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground ﬂoor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on February 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 1667 TREASURE STREET LOT NO 12, SQUARE 1959 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQUIRED MIN 972754 WRIT AMOUNT: $86,341.60

Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH

The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter

Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certiﬁed Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans

GH 28 JACKSON & MCPHERSON LLC 504-581-9444 RADER JACKSON

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025

$90.36 jan 15-feb 19-2t

Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans BD 2 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (504) 658-4346 MARSHALL GRIES

The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 1/15/2025 & 2/19/2025 $87.18 jan 15-feb 19-2t

PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT PORTION OF GROUND, BEARING MU‐NICIPAL NO 5696 STILL WATER DR, THIS CITY IN THE MATTER ENTITLED: DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COM‐PANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR AMERIQUEST MORTGAGE SECURITIES INC , ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2005-R4 VERSUS MAY‐LOIS CONERLY PRICE, (AKA MAYLOIS CONERLY, MAY‐LOIS PRICE MAYLOIS BACOT, MAY‐LOIS CONERLY BACOT)